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EPISODES 

IN 

A    LIFE    OF  ADVENTURE 

OR 

MOSS  FROM  A  ROLLING  STONE 


BY 


LAURENCE  OLIPHANT 

AUTHOR   OF 

"PICCADILLY"   "china  AND   JAPAN"   "aLTIORA   PETO  ' 

"HAIFA"   ETC. 


NEW    YORK 

HARPER  &   EROTHERS,  FRANKLIN   SQUARE 
1887 


LAURENCE    OLIPHANT'S  WORKS. 


ALTIORA    PETO.      i2mo,    Paper,    20 

cents ;  4to,  Paper,  20  cents. 
CHINA    AND    JAPAN.      Illustrated. 

8vo,  Cloth,  ^53. 50. 

PICCADILLY.     i2mo.  Paper,  25  cents. 


EPISODES  IN  A  LIFE  OP  ADVEN- 
TURE.    i2mo,  Cloth.     {Just  Ready.] 

HAIFA;  or,  Life  in  Modern  Palestine. 
Edited,  with  Introduction,  by  Charles 
A.  Dana.     Crown  8vo,  Cloth,  ^1.75. 


Published  by  HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  New  York. 

^S"  Sent  by  mail,  postage  prepaid,  to  any  part  of  the  United  States  or  Canada, 
on  receipt  of  the  price. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAP.  PAGE 

I.    THE  OVERLAND  ROUTE  FORTY-SIX  YEARS  AGO,  AND 

AN   ASCENT   OF   ADAM's   PEAK   IN   CEYLON,         .  I 
II.    REVOLUTIONARY    EPISODES  IN  ITALY  IN  THE   YEAR 

1848,  AND   AN   ADVENTURE   IN  GREECE,  .            .  I9 

III.  MY    FIRST   EXPERIENCES    IN    DIPLOMACY,  .  -32 

IV.  POLITICS  AND   INDIAN    AFFAIRS  IN  CANADA,  .            .  49 
V.    CRIMEAN   AND   CIRCASSIAN    EXPERIENCES,        .            .  65 

VI.   ADVENTURES    IN   CENTRAL   AMERICA,       ...        88 
VIL    CALCUTTA   DURING  THE  MUTINY,  AND  CHINA  DUR- 
ING  THE   WAR    1857-1859,       ....  102 
VIII.    SOME   SPORTING   REMINISCENCES,  .            .            .            •  II3 
IX.    AN  EPISODE  WITH  GARIBALDI,  AND  AN  EXPERIENCE 

IN   MONTENEGRO, 1 35 

X.    THE  ATTACK  ON  THE  BRITISH  LEGATION  IN  JAPAN 

IN   1861, 152 

XI.    A  VISIT   TO   TSUSIMA:      an    INCIDENT   OF   RUSSIAN 

AGGRESSION, 1 74 

XII.    POLITICS   AND  ADVENTURE  IN  ALBANIA  AND  ITALY 

IN    1862, 187 


IV  CONTENTS. 

CHAP.  PAGE 

XIII.  CRACOW   DURING  THE   POLISH    INSURRECTION   OF 

1863,   ........     200 

XIV.  EXPERIENCES  DURING  THE  POLISH  INSURRECTION  : 

WARSAW,        .  .  .  .  .  .  .217 

XV.    A   VISIT   TO   AN    INSURGENT   CAMP,         .  .  .      242 

XVI.    TWENTY-FOUR   HOURS   IN   VOLHYNIA,    .  .  -273 

XVII,   A  VISIT   TO   THE   CONVENTS   OF    MOLDAVIA,  .  .      29I 

XVIII.    THE  WAR  IN  SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN  :    THE  BATTLE 

OF    MISSUNDE, 312 

XIX.    THE   MORAL   OF    IT   ALL, 340 


EPISODES 

IN 

A    LIFE    OF    ADVENTURE. 


CHAPTER   I. 

THE   OVERLAND   ROUTE    FORTY-SIX   YEARS   AGO,  AND    AN   AS- 
CENT  OF   ADAM's   peak,  in    CEYLON. 

The  proverb  that  a  rolling  stone  gathers  no  "  moss  "  is, 
like  most  proverbs,  neater  as  an  epigram  than  as  a  truth,  in 
so  far  as  its  application  to  human  existence  is  concerned. 
Even  if  by  "moss"  is  signified  hard  cash,  commercial  and 
industrial  enterprises  have  undergone  such  a  change  since 
the  introduction  of  steam  and  electricity  that  the  men  who 
have  made  most  money  in  these  days  are  often  those  who 
have  been  flying  about  from  one  quarter  of  the  world  to  an- 
other in  its  successful  pursuit — taking  contracts,  obtaining 
concessions,  forming  companies,  or  engaging  in  speculations, 
the  profitable  nature  of  which  has  been  revealed  to  them  in 
the  course  of  their  travels.  But  there  may  be  said  to  be 
other  kinds  of  moss  besides  money,  of  which  the  human  roll- 
ing stone  gathers  more  than  the  stationary  one.  He  meets 
with  adventures,  he  acquires  experiences,  he  undergoes  ex- 
periences, and  gains  a  general  knowledge  of  the  world,  the 
whole  crystallizing  in  after-life  into  a  rich  fund  of  reminis- 
cences, which  becomes  the  moss  that  he  has  gathered.  The 
journal  of  such  a  one  in  after-years,  if  he  has  been  careful 
I 


2  EPISODES    IN    A    LIFE    OF    ADVENTURE, 

enough  to  record  his  experiences,  becomes  amusing  reading 
to  himself,  and  may  serve  to  refresh  his  memory  in  regard  to 
incidents  which,  as  matters  of  history,  may  not  be  devoid  of 
interest  to  the  public  generally. 

I  was  a  very  young  stone,  indeed,  when  I  began  rolling — 
a  mere  pebble,  in  fact ;  but  some  of  the  moss  which  I  col- 
lected then  has  stuck  to  me  with  greater  tenacity  than  much 
that  has  gathered  itself  upon  my  weather-worn  surface  in 
later  years.  The  impressions  of  early  travel  are  generally 
so  deeply  stamped  at  the  time  that  the  memory  of  them  does 
not  easily  fade.  Thus  I  have  made  the  overland  journey  to 
the  East,  backward  and  forward,  eight  times,  but  the  recol- 
lection of  the  first  one  continues  the  most  vivid;  and  it  is 
the  same  with  my  passages  across  the  Atlantic — but  perhaps 
that  is  because  it  lasted  seventeen  days,  was  made  in  the 
depth  of  winter,  and  under  circumstances  calculated  to  cause 
themselves  to  be  remembered.  My  first  voyage  to  the  East 
was  by  the  overland  route  in  the  winter  of  the  years  1841 
and  1842  ;  it  was  made  in  company  with  my  tutor,  and  so 
imperfect  were  the  arrangements  in  those  days  that  it  took 
us  two  full  months  to  reach  Ceylon.  At  Boulogne,  where 
we  arrived  in  a  steamer  direct  from  London  Bridge,  my  com- 
panion and  I  seated  ourselves  in  the  banquette  of  an  old- 
fashioned  diligence — for  very  few  miles  of  railway  had  been 
built  in  France  in  those  days;  and  from  our  elevated  perch, 
which  we  preferred  to  retain  throughout,  we  had  abundant 
opportunity  for  a  survey  of  "  La  belle  France,"  as  we  rum- 
bled across  it  from  one  end  to  the  other,  accomplishing  the 
journey  from  Boulogne  to  Marseilles  in  eight  days  and  five 
nights  of  incessant  diligence  travel ;  our  only  adventure  be- 
ing that  we  stuck  for  some  hours  of  the  night  in  the  snow 
near  Chalons,  and  had  to  be  dug  out.  At  that  time  there 
were  no  passenger-steamers  from  Marseilles  to  Malta,  and 
the  mails  were  conveyed  in  a  man-of-war,  which  was  also 
compelled  to  submit  to  the  humiliation  of  having  to  take 
passengers.     The  only  incident  of  which  I  have  any  recol- 


THE  OVERLAND  ROUTE  FORTY-SIX  YEARS  AGO,      3 

lection  during  the  voyage  was  that  of  pitching  headforemost 
from  the  quarter-deck  on  to  the  main-deck,  in  the  course  of 
a  race  in  sacks,  and  the  flash  of  thought  which  suggested  in- 
stant death  as  I  went  over.  From  this  accident  I  remained 
insensible  for  twenty-four  hours,  but  was  otherwise  none  the 
worse.  At  Malta  we  changed  steamers  for  Alexandria,  where 
the  East  burst  for  the  first  time  upon  my  surprised  senses. 
The  foreign  population  was  probably  not  a  quarter  of  what 
it  is  now ;  carriages  had  not  been  introduced ;  the  streets 
were  narrow,  ill-paved,  and  crowded  with  camels,  donkeys, 
veiled  women,  and  the  traffic  characteristic  of  an  Eastern 
city,  but  all  was  life  and  bustle  :  the  place  was  just  beginning 
to  quiver  under  the  impulse  of  the  movement  which  the  in- 
vention of  steam  was  imparting  to  the  world,  and  one  of  the 
earliest  evidences  of  which  was  the  direct  route  to  India, 
which  Lieutenant  Waghorn  had  just  opened  through  Egypt. 
One  of  the  pleasantest  experiences  of  the  journey  was  the 
voyage  along  the  Mahamoudieh  Canal  in  canal-boats  towed 
by  horses,  as  far  as  Atfeh.  This  was  a  perfect  picnic  while 
it  lasted ;  the  culinary  arrangements  being  extemporized  to 
meet  the  difficulties  of  the  situation,  principally  by  the  pas- 
sengers themselves,  for  the  organization  was  still  so  defective 
that  they  had  largely  to  trust  to  their  own  resources  and  ex- 
ertions to  secure  their  comfort.  The  morning  of  "  Cook  " 
had  not  yet  dawned,  and  we  were  still  in  a  sort  of  twilight 
of  ignorance  and  dragomans.  We  had  been  looking  forward 
to  a  sail  up  the  Nile  in  dahabceyahs  to  Cairo,  but  the  first 
steamer  had  just  been  put  on  the  river  ;  notwithstanding 
which,  owing  to  various  delays,  which  I  for  one  did  not  regret 
in  a  country  where  all  was  so  new  and  interesting,  it  took  us 
three  days  to  get  from  Alexandria  to  Cairo.  Here,  as  there 
was  no  civilized  hotel — for  Shepheard's  had  not  yet  sprung 
into  existence — we  had  to  go  to  a  native  khan,  where  a  num- 
ber of  bare;  unfurnished  cells  opened  upon  a  corridor,  en- 
closing four  sides  of  a  square,  which  was  filled  at  all  hours 
of  the  day  and  night  with  a  mob  of  grunting,  munching  cam- 


4  EPISODES    IN    A    LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

els,  and  their  screaming,  quarrelling  drivers  ;  and  here  we 
found  Mr.  Waghorn  himself,  indefatigable  in  his  exertions  for 
our  comfort,  and  in  a  constant  struggle  with  the  authorities, 
which,  considering  that  only  a  few  months  before  we  had 
bombarded  the  Egyptians  out  of  Acre,  and  had  handed  Pal- 
estine over  to  the  Turks,  was  by  no  means  to  be  wondered 
at.  Looked  at  by  the  light  of  subsequent  events,  we  should 
probably  have  done  better  had  we  left  things  as  they  were  ; 
but  in  that  case  subsequent  events  would  have  been  so  dif- 
ferent that  we  might  have  had  occasion  to  regret  them  still 
more.  No  doubt  there  were  reasons  why  it  seemed  best  at 
the  time  to  separate  the  interests  of  Palestine  from  those  of 
Egypt ;  but  the  fate  of  each  country  must  ever  be  powerfully 
influenced  in  the  future,  as  it  has  been  in  the  past,  by  the 
destiny  of  the  other  ;  and  their  relative  position  towards  each 
other,  topographically  and  commercially,  must  always  cause 
the  influence  which  is  paramount  in  Egypt  to  be  powerfully 
operative  in  Palestine.  And  this  will  become  the  case,  in  a  still 
more  marked  degree,  when  the  two  countries  are  united,  as 
they  must  be  before  long,  by  a  railway  from  Cairo  to  Damas- 
cus. There  is  no  line  probably  in  the  world,  except  perhaps 
between  the  populous  cities  of  China,  more  certain  to  pay 
than  one  which  should  connect  Egypt  and  Syria,  and  which 
would  convey  the  greater  part  of  that  produce  which  is  now 
carried  in  native  boats  by  sea,  or  transported  wearily  across 
the  intervening  desert  on  the  backs  of  camels.  The  Eastern 
question  will  have,  however,  to  be  reopened  and  closed  again 
before  we  can  hope  to  see  it  constructed.  Meantime  we  were 
almost  as  unpopular  in  Egypt  in  1841  as  we  are  now;  but 
then,  at  all  events,  we  had  a  clear  and  definite  policy,  and 
knew  distinctly  what  we  were  aiming  at.  What  we  lost  in 
one  direction  we  gained  in  another,  instead  of  losing  all 
round,  as  we  do  in  these  days,  and  which  we  shall  continue 
to  do  in  the  degree  in  which  the  British  mob  is  invited  by 
subservient  statesmen  to  dictate  to  them  the  policy  to  be  pur- 
sued in  foreign  affairs.     However,  these  are  merely  the  views 


THE   OVERLAND    ROUTE    FORTY-SIX   YEARS   AGO.  S 

of  a  rolling  stone,  with  which  it  is  impossible  that  stones 
which  form  a  part  of  the  pavement  of  London  streets,  and  can 
see  no  farther  than  the  houses  on  either  side,  can  sympathize  ; 
but  of  this  they  may  feel  sure,  that  if  they  were  picked  out  of 
their  political  gutters,  and  sent  rolling  about  the  world  for  a 
few  years,  they  would  get  rid  of  a  good  deal  of  the  dirt  of 
party,  and  gather  a  little  of  the  moss  of  patriotism. 

Forty-six  years  have  worked  a  far  greater  change  in  Cairo 
than  they  have  in  Alexandria.  In  fact,  they  have  trans- 
formed the  city  to  an  extent  which  makes  it  no  longer  recog- 
nizable. From  the  most  Oriental  of  Oriental  cities,  which  it 
was  when  I  saw  it  first,  it  has  become  the  most  European — 
the  broad  boulevards  and  miles  of  roads  and  streets,  the  hun- 
dreds of  carriages  plying  for  hire,  the  magnificent  hotels  and 
handsome  villas  with  their  surrounding  gardens,  have  super- 
seded all  that  was  quaint.  Eastern,  and  picturesque.  The 
Ezebekeyeh,  where  in  old  days  one  sat  in  the  still  evenings, 
and  smoked  chibouks  and  7iarg/iile/is,  and  drank  coffee  and 
sherbet,  and  listened  to  the  twang  of  native  instruments,  in 
company  with  groups  of  venerable  Moslems,  is  now  a  park 
where  nurse-maids  and  babies  and /^///x  creves  go  and  lis- 
ten to  a  military  band.  And  one  has  to  make  an  expe- 
dition expressly  into  the  native  quarter  to  know  that  it  ex- 
ists. We  were  detained  a  couple  of  days  in  Cairo,  while  Mr. 
Waghorn  was  arranging  for  our  transport  across  the  desert 
to  Suez,  and  we  were  never  tired  of  exploring  its  narrow 
streets  on  donkeys,  and  spending  money  on  articles  which 
could  never  be  of  any  manner  of  use  to  us,  in  its  crowded 
and  well-stocked  bazaars. 

We  crossed  the  desert  in  several  four-horse  vans — horses 
having  been  recently  substituted  for  the  camels  which  were 
at  first  attached  to  these  vehicles — and  found  waiting  for  us 
at  Suez  the  steamer  India.  The  journey  from  the  Mediter- 
ranean to  the  Red  Sea,  including  two  days'  stay  at  Alexan- 
dria, had  occupied  eight  days.  The  last  time  I  crossed  from 
one  sea  to  the  other  it  was  by  an  express  train  without  any 


6  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

delay  at  Cairo,  and  the  time  occupied  was  nine  hours.  Be- 
fore the  establishment  of  the  Peninsular  and  Oriental  Steam 
Company,  the  mails  were  conveyed  from  Suez  to  Bombay  by 
one  of  the  East  India  Company's  men-of-war.  The  first 
merchant -ship  which  carried  passengers  and  mails  direct 
from  Suez  to  Calcutta  was  the  India,  and  this  was  her  first 
voyage.  She  was  commanded  by  a  Captain  Staveley,  and 
was  considered  a  large  ship  in  those  days,  though  she  was 
not  over  fifteen  hundred  tons.  The  survey  of  the  Red  Sea 
was  also,  I  imagine,  imperfect.  At  any  rate,  on  the  second 
night  after  leaving  Suez  we  were  all  nearly  thrown  out  of  our 
berths  by  the  ship  running  full  speed  upon  a  coral-reef,  on 
which  the  scene  of  panic  usual  on  such  occasions  occurred. 
All  the  passengers,  male  and  female,  were  on  deck  in  the 
lightest  of  attire  in  a  moment,  and  were  somewhat  reassured 
by  the  fact  that  the  sea  was  as  calm  as  a  mill-pond,  and  the 
ship  as  motionless  as  a  statue  —  so  much  so,  indeed,  that 
one  weak-minded  cadet,  who  had  been  the  butt  of  the  younger 
members  of  the  party  all  the  way,  thought  the  opportunity  a 
good  one  in  which  to  write  his  will,  which  he  proceeded  with 
great  earnestness  and  good  faith  to  do  in  the  saloon,  assisted 
by  several  of  his  friends,  whose  good  faith  was  not  so  ob- 
vious. When  he  had  finished  it,  we  took  charge  of  it,  and 
promised  that  in  case  any  of  us  were  saved  from  the  wreck, 
which  he  thought  imminent,  the  survivors  would  see  that  it 
was  executed.  I  have  often  wondered  since  whether  this 
youth  ever  rose  to  command  the  regiment  he  went  out  to 
join.  We  stuck  on  this  reef  several  hours,  and  then  with  the 
help  of  the  little  tide  there  is  in  the  Red  Sea,  and  the  boats, 
we  floated  off,  with,  as  it  afterwards  turned  out,  a  severely 
damaged  bottom.  However,  we  steamed  slowly  on  for  two 
or  three  days  more,  and  then  ran  out  of  coal.  As  there  was 
not  a  breath  of  wind  when  this  discovery  was  made,  the  pros- 
pect of  lying  for  an  indefinite  time,  "  like  a  painted  ship  upon 
a  painted  ocean,"  was  not  encouraging.  However,  the  ocean 
was  fortunately  a  very  narrow  one,  and  with  the  aid  of  a  puff 


THE  OVERLAND    ROUTE    FORTY-SIX    YEARS   AGO.  7 

of  wind  which  ultimately  sprang  up,  we  managed  to  work  our 
way  into  Mocha.  As  I  was  not  in  the  slightest  hurry  to 
reach  my  journey's  end,  I  was  delighted  at  this  contretemps^ 
as  it  gave  me  a  chance  of  seeing  a  very  rarely  visited  place. 
We  lay  off  Mocha  for  three  days,  taking  in  wood.  Its  as- 
pect from  the  sea  is  not  particularly  inviting.  It  is  merely  a 
row  of  white,  flat-roofed  houses,  with  a  minaret  or  two  rising 
above  them,  glistening  in  the  broiling  sun,  with  a  palm-grove 
at  either  end,  and  a  desert  beyond.  Some  of  us  went  on 
shore  to  explore  the  town  and  pay  a  visit  to  the  governor  or 
shereef.  We  then  found  that  the  white  houses  looked  far 
grander  at  a  distance  than  on  nearer  acquaintance  ;  and  that 
there  was  a  bazaar  behind  them,  in  which  a  large  proportion 
of  desert  Arabs  mingled  with  the  Moslem  townspeople,  bring- 
ing in  strings  of  camels  with  dates,  coffee,  and  other  produce 
for  sale.  I  was  told  that,  though  the  country  immediately 
surrounding  Mocha  was  barren  and  unprepossessing,  there 
was  a  fertile,  well-watered  hill-region  behind,  where  the  cele- 
brated coffee  called  after  the  town  is  produced,  but  which, 
even  to  this  day,  has  been  only  very  partially  explored.  At 
present  the  obstacles  to  exploration  are  even  greater  than 
when  I  was  at  Mocha.  At  that  time  it  was  virtually,  if  not 
technically,  the  capital  of  Yemen,  a  rich  and  fertile  province 
about  four  hundred  miles  long  by  one  hundred  and  fifty 
wide  ;  and  though  the  Sultan  of  Turkey  cast  covetous  eyes 
upon  it,  and  even  attempted  to  lay  some  claim  to  sovereignty 
over  it,  it  was  practically  an  independent  country,  the  su- 
preme authority  being  the  imaum,  whose  palace  was  at  Sana, 
a  town  equidistant  from  Aden  and  from  Mocha,  being  about 
one  hundred  and  sixty  miles  from  each,  and  the  centre  of  a 
trade  which  found  its  way  to  the  sea-coast  at  Mocha.  Now 
all  this  is  changed.  There  is  no  longer  an  imaum  at  Sana : 
after  a  protracted  war,  which  has  lasted  over  several  years, 
and  which  never  raged  more  fiercely  than  it  did  last  year, 
though  we  heard  very  little  about  it,  Yemen  has  been  an- 
nexed to  the  Turkish  empire  and  constituted  into  a  vilayet, 


8  KPUODES   1U  A    LIFE  OF  ADVENTUKE. 

with  a  Turkish  pasha  resident  at  Sana,  where,  however,  his 
authority  docs  not  extend  beyond  the  bayonets  of  his  sol- 
diers, of  whom  a  large  force  is  kept  under  his  orders.  I  have 
conversed  with  many  of  these  men  who  have  returned  from 
service  in  Yemen,  and  they  all  tell  me  that  the  country  is  in 
a  state  of  chronic  revolt;  that  the  Arabs  are  intensely  hostile 
to  the  authority  of  the  Porte ;  that  they  are  very  brave,  and 
that  their  conversion  into  peaceful  subjects  seems  an  almost 
hopeless  task,  I  have  also  met  in  Jerusalem  a  very  interest- 
ing set  of  Jews,  who  only  arrived  there  as  refugees  a  little 
more  than  two  years  ago  from  Yemen,  where  they  say  they 
wece  selllcfl  long  before  the  final  dispersion,  for  they  claim  to 
bc'dcsccnded  from  the  tribe  of  Dan  :  they  are  learned  in  the 
Scriptures,  and  more  devout  and  unsophisticated  than  those 
who  have  been  in  contact  with  Western  civilization.  They 
say  llicy  were  compelled  to  leave  Yemen  in  consequence  of 
the  war  between  the  'I'urks  aiifl  Arabs,  where  they  found 
themselves  between  the  upper  :iu(\  the  nether  millstone. 

So  far  a-;  f  was  able  to  gather,  tiiere  is,  however,  a  strong 
liibc  (A  iifunafls,  all  pure  Jews,  who  have  sided  with  the 
Arabs  in  the  late  war,  and  who  have  retired  into  fastnesses, 
wh(;re  the  Turks  have  had  a  difficuHy  in  following  them,  for 
pail',  fif  Ih':  country  arc  very  mountainous.  I  have  also 
heard  froni  more  than  one  source  of  the  existence  of  a 
valuable  gold  niim;  somewhere  in  Yemen,  and  conversed 
willi  those  vvlio  have  seen  the  ore  that  has  been  extracted 
Ik^mi  it. 

Tlic  cicalion  of  Yemen  into  a  Tiirkisli  vilayet  brought  the 
frontier  of  the  empire  almost  to  the  gates  of  Aden  ;  and  the 
native  Aral)  tribes,  who,  on  the  occasion  of  my  first  visit, 
ma(k;  it  unsafe  to  venture  a  hundred  yards  from  the  fortifica- 
tion, were  glad  to  seek  our  protection  rather  than  fall  under 
Turkish  rule.  The  result  has  been  a  certain  tension  between 
the  Turkish  authorities  and  British  officials,  arising  out  of 
tins  newly  born  propin([uity  ;  and  the  f(;ar  lest  our  influence 
should   s|)iea(!   into   llu;  iiiti^rior,  has   induced  the  Ottoman 


THE  OVERLAXD   ROUTE   FORTY-SIX   YEARS   AGO.  9 

government  strictly  to  prohibit  Englishmen  from  entering 
Yemen.  When  I  was  at  Mocha,  it  was  only  necessary  to  en- 
list the  favor  of  the  shereef  of  that  place,  and  obtain  permis- 
sion from  the  Imaum  of  Sana  to  get  into  the  interior,  which, 
although  it  was  never  thoroughly  explored,  had  already  been 
visited  by  Wellstead,  Cruttenden,  and  other  travellers. 

Meantime  Mocha  has  suffered  severely  under  all  these 
changes ;  and  from  having  a  papulation  of  ten  thousand  in- 
habitants, has  dwindled  down  to  a  mere  village,  all  the  trade 
of  Yemen  finding  its  outlet  at  Aden,  which  is  only  eighty 
miles  distant  from  it  by  sea- 

The  Shereef  of  ^Mocha,  when  we  visited  him,  was  a  great 
j>ersonage,  and  received  us  with  much' ceremony,  gave  us  ex- 
cellent coffee,  which,  under  the  circumstances,  was  only  to  be 
expected,  and  was  delighted  with  the  present  of  a  ship's  mus- 
ket, which  the  captain  gave  him  to  enlist  his  influence  in  the 
wood  question.  He  immediately  loaded  it,  and  took  a  shot 
at  a  mark  on  the  opposite  wall  of  the  street,  which  was  not 
more  than  a  foot  or  two  above  the  beads  of  the  people,  by 
whom  it  was  crowded.  Their  alarm  and  astonishment  as 
the  ball  whistled  close  to  their  ears  were  ludicrous  to  behold, 
and  highly  amused  the  governor,  who  I  don't  think  would 
have  been  much  aSected  even  if  the  consequeoces  bad  been 
serious. 

The  indifference  of  the  natives  to  human  life  was  remark- 
ably illustrated  while  we  were  here.  From  morning  till 
night  our  ship  was  surrounded  by  boats  loaded  with  wood, 
their  crews  keeping  up  a  most  discordant  din  of  screaming 
refrain  while  engaged  in  the  process  of  discharging  their 
cargoes  into  i».  llie  abundance  of  this  article  was  a  strong 
ei-idence  of  its  existence  in  the  interior ;  but  as  it  had  all 
come  OD  camel's  backs,  it  must  have  been  an  expensive  com- 
modity. One  of  these  boats,  with  a  couple  of  men  in  it,  got 
capnzed,  the  boat  turned  over,  and  the  men  scrambled  on  to 
the  keeL  There  must  have  been  a  strong  current,  as  th^ 
speedily  drifted  out  to  sea,  without  any  eflbrts  being  made 


lO  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE    OF   ADVENTURE. 

by  their  comrades  to  rescue  them,  though  the  accident  took 
place  at  midday,  in  full  view  of  everybody.  I  suppose  our 
captain  thought  that  it  was  the  business  of  the  natives  to 
look  after  each  other.  We  watched  them  with  our  glasses 
until  they  disappeared  on  the  horizon  ;  but  as  the  sea  is  very 
narrow  at  this  part,  it  is  to  be  hoped  they  drifted  ashore  on 
the  opposite  side. 

From  Mocha,  with  our  wood  fuel  and  our  rickety  bottom, 
we  steamed  slowly  round  to  Aden,  where  the  ship  was  laid 
up  for  repairs,  and  I  was  kindly  received  as  a  guest  by  Cap- 
tain Staines,  then  commissioner  at  that  place.  Forty- six 
years  has  worked  a  great  change  at  Aden,  as  at  all  the  other 
places  on  the  route.  '  It  had  then  been  only  two  years  in 
our  possession,  and  was  held  like  a  post  in  an  enemy's  coun- 
try. Every  morning  and  evening  long  strings  of  camels  were 
to  be  seen  passing  into  the  camp  from  the  interior  with  sup- 
plies, and  returning  again  to  the  desert,  every  Arab  who  ac- 
companied them  being  compelled  to  have  a  pass,  and  none 
of  them  being  permitted  to  sleep  within  the  gates  for  fear  of 
treachery. 

We  have  now  reduced  all  these  unruly  tribes  to  subjection, 
and  within  a  certain  radius  of  Aden  the  petty  sultans  by 
whom  they  are  governed  have  been  placed  under  our  pro- 
tection—  notably  the  Sultan  of  Lahaj,  whose  village  is  a 
day's  ride  distant  into  the  interior,  and  who  can  now  be  vis- 
ited with  perfect  security.  We  have  annexed  a  small  district 
adjoining  the  peninsula,  and  upon  it,  three  miles  from  the 
fortifications,  have  established  a  town  called  Sheik  Osman, 
which  has  a  population  of  twelve  thousand,  composed  of  So- 
maulis,  Hindoos,  Abyssinians,  and  Arabs.  Each  of  these 
nationalities  has  its  own  quarter,  and  perfect  peace  and  or- 
der are  maintained  without  the  intervention  of  any  European 
— there  being  no  white  man  in  the  place.  Aden  itself  has 
now  a  population  of  at  least  fifty  thousand,  and  is  a  grow- 
ing commercial  emporium,  while  large  sums  are  about  to 
be  spent  upon  its  fortifications.     When  I  first  visited  it,  the 


AN   ASCENT   OF   ADAMS  PEAK.  II 

resident  population,  outside  the  garrison,  were  to  be  counted 
by  hundreds;  and  both  at  the  "Camp  "and  the  "Point," 
into  which  the  settlement  was  divided,  the  residences  were 
of  the  most  flimsy  description.  To  me,  however,  their  quaint 
and  unsubstantial  character  possessed  all  the  charm  of  nov- 
elty ;  and  the  conditions  of  existence  generally  were  so 
strange  and  unlike  anything  to  which  I  had  been  accustomed, 
that  I  enjoyed  my  week's  stay  immensely,  and  was  quite 
sorry  when  the  repairs  of  the  ship  were  completed,  and  we 
were  called  upon  to  bid  adieu  to  its  hospitable  society. 

The  remainder  of  the  voyage  was  only  remarkable  for  our 
slow  rate  of  speed,  and  we  reached  Ceylon  without  further 
incident,  si.\ty  days  after  leaving  England. 

I  read  a  very  interesting  article  in  Blackivood's  Magazine 
not  long  since  on  sacred  footprints,  in  which  the  writer  sug- 
gested that  many  of  them  were  originally  coronation-stones, 
and  in  which  he  offered  some  ingenious  suggestions  as  to  the 
religious  character  which  attaches  to  them  among  the  various 
races  in  the  different  countries  where  they  are  found.  They 
seem,  indeed,  to  possess  a  peculiar  fascination  to  the  devo- 
tional mind  among  Oriental  races ;  and  we  not  unfrequently 
find  the  same  footprint  invested  with  a  traditional  sanctity 
by  the  adherents  of  religions  which  have  no  relation  to  each 
other  beyond  one  or  two  of  those  broad  ideas  which  are  more 
or  less  common  to  all  worship.  This  is  notably  the  case 
with  the  print  on  Adam's  Peak,  the  Sripada  of  the  Buddhists, 
the  penitential  mountain  of  our  first  parent  of  the  Moham- 
medans. It  was  from  here  that  Gautama  is  supposed  to 
have  stepped  across  the  Bay  of  Bengal  into  Siam — a  gigan- 
tic stride,  but  not  so  wonderful  a  performance  as  that  attrib- 
uted to  Adam,  as  described  by  a  devout  Mussulman  to  a 
friend  of  mine,  when  discussing  the  means  by  which  he  trans- 
ported himself  to  Ceylon,  after  his  expulsion  with  his  wife, 
according  to  Moslem  traditions,  from  the  Garden  of  Eden. 
It  seems  that  poor  Eve,  after  being  separated  from  Adam 


12  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

for  two  hundred  years,  and  reunited  with  him  on  Mount  Ar- 
arat, died  before  he  left  Arabia  ;  for  her  tomb,  which  is  re- 
garded with  great  veneration  by  Moslems,  is  pointed  out  to 
the  pious  pilgrims  on  their  way  to  Mecca,  at  Jeddah.  Ac- 
cording to  this  tradition,  it  was  at  the  former  place  that  Adam 
knelt  down  to  ask  forgiveness  upon  that  stone,  which  has 
been  invested  with  the  utmost  sanctity  from  a  period  long 
anterior  to  Mohammed — the  sacred  Caaba  of  Mecca ;  and 
there  he  had  his  penance  imposed  upon  him.  Then,  travel- 
ling to  the  coast,  Eve  died,  and  was  buried  about  a  mile 
from  Jeddah,  in  a  tomb  two  hundred  feet  long;  for  she  was 
a  tall  woman.  The  human  race  seems  steadily  to  have  de- 
generated after  her  time,  for  Noah  occupies  a  tomb  which 
was  pointed  out  to  me  near  Zahleh,  in  the  Lebanon,  only 
one  hundred  and  four  feet  long  by  ten  wide.  If  Eve  was 
two  hundred  feet  high,  her  husband,  to  judge  by  the  present 
proportions  of  the  sexes,  must  have  been  a  good  deal  taller, 
say  twenty-five  or  thirty  feet.  Now  the  difficulty  which  my 
friend  suggested  to  his  Moslem  disputant  was — how,  in  those 
early  days,  a  man  two  hundred  and  twenty  or  two  hundred 
and  thirty  feet  high  could  find  a  sainbook,  or  craft  such  as 
are  now  used  in  those  seas,  big  enough  to  carry  him  on  a 
long  voyage  ? 

"There  was  no  difficulty  at  all  about  it,"  replied  the  Mos- 
lem ;  "he  went  over  to  Ceylon  in  several  sainhooks  P^ 

After  performing  such  a  wonderful  feat  as  this,  the  fact 
that  he  should  have  been  able  to  stand  on  the  top  of  Adam's 
Peak  on  one  leg  for  a  thousand  years,  and  leave  his  footprint 
there  deeply  embedded  in  the  rock,  dwindles  into  insignifi- 
cance. Moslem  traditions  vary  considerably  in  regard  to  the 
proceedings  of  our  earliest  ancestors,  and  I  by  no  means  pin 
my  faith  to  this  one.  According  to  another,  Ceylon  itself 
was  the  Garden  of  Eden,  and  in  that  case  Adam's  post  of 
penance  was  handy,  while  his  enormous  height  would  enable 
him  to  reach  the  top  a  great  deal  more  easily  than  I  did,  and 
then  Eve  must  have  gone  over  in  "  several  sambooks  "  to  Jed- 


AN    ASCENT   OF   ADAM  S    PEAK.  I3 

dah.  Again,  the  most  commonly  accepted  version  of  the 
origin  of  the  Caaba  is,  that  it  was  originally  a  white  stone 
given  by  the  angel  Gabriel  to  Abraham,  and  has  since  been 
blackened  by  much  kissing;  while  others  again  say  that  Ha- 
gar  rested  there  with  Ishmael,  when,  after  being  turned  out 
of  house  and  home,  they  drank  at  Mecca  at  the  sacred 
spring  Zemzem.  These  are  all  fertile  themes  of  discussion 
among  Moslems,  and  the  reader  may  take  his  choice  of 
them.  Meantime  many  pilgrims  go  annually  to  the  top  of 
Adam's  Peak,  which  is  about  seven  thousand  five  hundred 
feet  above  the  sea-level,  both  Moslem  and  Buddhist — and 
must  feel  not  a  little  indignant  with  each  other  at  finding  it 
appropriated  by  two  such  very  different  characters  as  Adam 
and  Buddha.  By  far  the  greater  number,  however,  are  Bud- 
dhists. 

There  are  two  paths  of  ascent :  the  one  most  commonly 
taken  by  pilgrims  is  from  Ratnapoora,  a  place  which  owes 
its  importance  chiefly  to  its  trade  in  precious  stones.  The 
sand-washings  of  the  river  which  flows  past  it  yield  rubies, 
sapphires,  amethysts,  cat's-eyes,  besides  cinnamon  stones 
and  others  of  less  value,  and  furnish  a  fair  source  of  profit 
to  the  inhabitants.  While  watching  the  washers  one  day,  I 
bought  on  the  spot  a  cat's-eye  from  one  man  I  saw  find 
it,  which,  when  polished,  proved  to  have  been  a  good  bar- 
gain. 

As  it  is  rather  a  fatiguing  day's  journey  from  Ratnapoora 
to  the  top  of  the  Peak,  I  made  an  early  start  with  a  friend 
from  the  house  of  the  hospitable  judge  who  was  at  that  time 
exercising  his  functions  in  this  district,  attended  by  our  horse- 
keepers — as  grooms  are  called  in  that  country — and  some 
natives,  who  acted  as  guides  and  carriers  of  the  provisions 
we  required  for  a  three  days'  trip.  To  say  that  our  way  led 
us  through  beautiful  scenery  is  to  use  a  platitude  in  connec- 
tion with  the  central  and  mountainous  districts  of  Ceylon, 
where  the  luxuriance  of  tropical  vegetation  merges,  as  we 
reach  higher  altitudes,  into  the  heavy  forests  peculiar  to  them 


14  EPISODES   IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

— where  the  villages  are  no  longer  embowered  in  groves  of 
cocoanut- trees,  or  nestle  beneath  the  broad  leaves  of  the 
plantain,  but  where  they  are  surrounded  by  coffee-biishes  red 
with  berry,  and  are  shadowed  by  the  feathery  bamboo  ;  while 
the  valley  bottoms  are  terraced  for  the  irrigation  of  rice,  an- 
other variety  of  which,  called  hill-paddy,  clothes  the  steep 
hillsides  where  these  are  not  already  occupied  by  forest. 
Now,  these  once  heavily-timbered  slopes  are  for  the  most 
part  covered  with  coffee  plantations  up  to  a  certain  elevation, 
beyond  which  coffee  gives  place  to  tea  and  cinchona.  But 
forty  years  have  made  a  difference  in  this  respect ;  and  when 
I  ascended  Adam's  Peak,  the  villages  became  fewer  and 
farther  between  as  we  increased  our  elevation,  while  our  path 
often  led  us  up  the  steep  mountain-flank,  through  a  dense 
jungle,  as  yet  untouched  by  the  hand  of  the  foreign  capital- 
ist. We  passed  the  night  at  a  native  house  in  one  of  the 
higher  villages,  and  leaving  our  horses  there,  on  the  follow- 
ing morning  pursued  our  way  on  foot  amid  scenery  which  at 
every  step  became  more  grand  and  rugged,  the  path  in 
places  skirting  the  edge  of  dizzy  precipices,  at  the  base  of 
which  foamed  brawling  torrents.  The  way  was  often  ren- 
dered dangerous  by  the  roots  of  large  trees,  which,  having 
become  slippery  by  the  morning  mist,  stretched  across  the 
narrow  path,  and  one  of  these  nearly  cost  me  my  life.  The 
path  at  the  spot  was  scarped  on  the  precipitous  hillside  ;  at 
least  three  hundred  feet  below  roared  a  torrent  of  boiling 
water — when  my  foot  slipped  on  a  root,  and  I  pitched  over 
the  sheer  cliff  I  heard  the  cry  of  my  companion  as  I  dis- 
appeared,, and  had  quite  time  to  realize  that  all  was  over, 
when  I  was  brought  up  suddenly  by  the  spreading  branches 
of  a  bush  which  was  growing  upon  a  projecting  rock.  There 
was  no  standing-ground  anywhere,  except  the  rock  the  bush 
grew  upon.  For  some  time  I  dared  not  move,  fearing  that 
something,  might  give  way,  as  the  bush  seemed  scarcely 
strong  enough  to  bear  my  weight.  Looking  up,  I  saw  my 
companion  and  the  natives  who  were  with  us  peering  over 


AN   ASCENT   OF   ADAM's    PEAK.  15 

the  edge  above,  and  to  their  intense  relief  shouted  that  so 
far  I  was  all  right,  but  dared  not  move  for  fear  the  bush 
would  give  way.  They,  however,  strongly  urged  my  scram- 
bling on  to  the  rock ;  and  this,  with  a  heart  thumping  so 
loudly  that  I  seemed  to  hear  its  palpitations,  and  a  dizzy 
brain,  I  succeeded  in  doing.  The  natives,  of  whom  there 
were  five  or  six,  then  undid  their  long  waist-cloths,  and  tying 
them  to  each  other,  and  to  a  piece  of  cord,  consisting  of  the 
united  contributions  of  all  the  string  of  the  party  and  the 
packages  they  were  carrying,  made  a  rope  just  long  enough 
to  reach  me.  Fastening  this  under  my  armpits,  and  holding 
on  to  it  with  the  energy  of  despair,  or  perhaps  I  should  rather 
say  of  hope,  I  was  safely  hauled  to  the  top  ;  but  my  nerve 
was  so  shaken  that,  although  not  in  the  least  hurt,  it  was 
some  moments  before  I  could  go  on.  This  adventure  was 
not  a  very  good  preparation  for  what  was  in  store  for  us 
when,  not  very  far  from  the  top,  we  reached  the  mauvais  pas 
of  the  whole  ascent.  Here  again  we  had  a  precipice  with  a 
torrent  at  the  bottom  of  it  on  one  side,  and  on  the  other  an 
overhanging  cliff — not  metaphorically  overhanging,  but  liter- 
ally its  upper  edge  projected  some  distance  beyond  the  ledge 
on  which  we  stood  ;  it  was  not  above  forty  feet  high,  and 
was  scaled  by  an  iron  ladder.  The  agonizing  moment  came 
when  we  had  mounted  this  ladder  to  the  projecting  edge,  and 
had  nothing  between  our  backs  and  the  torrent  some  hun- 
dreds of  feet  below,  and  then  had  to  turn  over  the  edge  and 
take  hold  of  a  chain  which  lay  over  an  expanse  of  bare,  slop- 
ing rock,  to  the  links  of  which  it  was  necessary  to  cling  firm- 
ly, while  one  hauled  one's  self  on  one's  knees  for  twenty  or 
thirty  yards  over  the  by  no  means  smooth  surface.  My  sen- 
sations, at  the  critical  moment  when  I  was  clinging  back- 
ward on  to  the  ladder,  remind  me  of  a  subsequent  experience 
in  a  Cornish  mine.  I  was  some  hundreds  of  feet  down  in  the 
bowels  of  the  earth,  crawling  down  a  ladder  similarly  suspend- 
ed, and,  feeling  that  the  temperature  was  every  moment  get- 
ting warmer,  I  said  to  a  miner  who  was  accompanying  me, 


l6  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE    OF    ADVENTURE. 

"  It  is  getting  very  hot  down  here.  How  far  do  you  think 
it  is  to  the  infernal  regions  ?" 

"  I  don't  know  exactly,  sir,"  he  promptly  replied  ;  "  but  if 
you  let  go,  you  will  be  there  in  two  minutes." 

Thus  did  he  meanly  take  advantage  of  my  precarious  and 
helpless  position  to  reflect  upon  my  moral  character !  which 
was  the  more  aggravating  as  I  afterwards  discovered  that 
the  remark  was  not  original. 

It  was  my  companion's  turn,  after  we  had  safely  accom- 
plished this  disagreeable  feat  of  gymnastics,  to  pant  with  ner- 
vousness. And  here  let  me  remark  that  the  Alpine  Club 
did  not  exist  in  those  days,  and  we  were  neither  of  us  used 
to  go  about  like  flies  on  a  wall.  He  was  a  missionary,  in 
fact ;  and  he  was  so  utterly  demoralized  that  he  roundly  de- 
clared that  nothing  would  induce  him  to  make  the  descent 
of  the  same  place.  Now  the  prospect  of  imitating  Adam, 
and  staying  permanently  on  the  top  of  the  peak  called  after 
him,  was  so  appalling,  that  I  proposed  opening  a  bottle  of 
brandy,  which  we  had  brought  with  us,  and  fortifying  our 
nerves  by  taking  a  light  repast  there  and  then — a  measure 
which  was  further  recommended  to  us  by  the  fact  that  the 
spot  commanded  an  extensive  and  magnificent  bird's-eye  view 
of  the  whole  southern  portion  of  the  island,  with  the  sea  dis- 
tinctly visible  in  the  extreme  distance,  and  thousands  of  feet 
below  us  the  forests  from  which  we  had  so  abruptly  ascended. 
We  had  one  or  two  pretty  steep  places  after  this,  but  nothing 
comparable  to  the  mauvais  pas^  and  reached  the  summit  an 
hour  or  so  before  sunset.  Here  we  found  the  solitary  inhab- 
itant of  a  single  hut  to  be  a  Buddhist,  who  was  guardian  of 
the  sacred  footprint,  over  which  was  a  wooden  erection  some- 
thing like  a  light  arbor,  and  which  was  secured  to  the  rock 
by  chains  riveted  into  it.  The  print  itself  was  about  four 
feet  long  and  nearly  three  wide,  so  far  as  I  can  recollect,  and 
was  so  misshapen  that  it  required  some  stretch  of  imagination 
to  detect  in  it  a  resemblance  to  a  human  impression  on  a 
gigantic  scale,  more  especially  as  the  toes  were  almost  unde- 


AN   ASCENT   OF   ADAM's    PEAK.  1 7 

fined.  The  whole  area  of  the  summit,  which  was  ahnost  cir- 
cular in  shape,  was  not  more  than  twenty  yards  in  diameter  ; 
and  the  sensation  of  being  perched  up  at  so  great  an  eleva- 
tion on  such  a  relatively  minute  point  of  rock  was  an  alto- 
gether novel  one.  One  felt  as  though  a  violent  gale  of  wind 
might  blow  one  off  it  into  space  ;  and  that  there  was  some 
such  danger  was  evident  from  the  fact  that  the  two  flimsy 
erections  upon  it  were  fastened  to  the  rock. 

We  now  congratulated  ourselves  on  having  brought  up 
thick  blankets;  for,  accustomed  as  we  had  been  for  some 
time  past  to  the  heat  of  tropical  plains,  we  felt  the  change  to 
the  sharp  night  air  of  such  an  elevation — the  more  especial- 
ly as  the  priest's  hut  was  too  filthy-looking  for  us  to  occupy, 
and  we  preferred  taking  shelter  under  its  lee.  We  had  no 
inducement,  after  a  night  on  the  hard  rock,  to  sleep  late  ;  and 
by  getting  up  an  hour  before  sunrise,  I  was  fortunate  enough 
to  witness  a  spectacle  which  was  well  worth  all  the  fatigues 
and  perils  of  the  ascent. 

As  Adam's  Peak  rises  from  a  comparatively  low  range 
of  hills  in  the  form  of  a  perfect  cone,  it  presents  a  far  grander 
aspect  than  its  rival  Pedrotallagalla,  which,  although  more 
than  one  thousand  feet  higher,  neither  stands  out  from  its 
neighbors  with  the  same  solitary  grandeur,  nor  does  it  fur- 
nish anything  like  the  same  extent  of  panoramic  view,  while 
it  is  easy  of  ascent  on  horseback.  When  I  awoke  to  look 
about  me,  by  the  light  of  a  moon  a  little  past  the  full,  in  the 
early  morning,  I  looked  down  from  this  isolated  summit 
upon  a  sea  of  mist  which  stretched  to  the  horizon  in  all  di- 
rections, completely  concealing  the  landscape  beneath  me. 
Its  white,  compact,  smooth  surface  almost  gave  it  the  ap- 
pearance of  a  field  of  snow,  across  which,  in  a  deep  black 
shadow,  extended  the  conical  form  of  the  mountain  I  was 
on,  its  apex  just  touching  the  horizon,  and  producing  a  scenic 
effect  as  unique  as  it  was  imposing.  While  I  was  watching 
it,  the  sharpness  of  its  outline  gradually  began  to  fade,  the 
black  shadow  became  by  degrees  less  black,  the  white  mist 


l8  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE, 

more  gray,  and  as  the  dawn  slowly  broke,  the  whole  efifect 
was  changed  as  by  the  wand  of  a  magician.  Another  conical 
shadow  crept  over  the  vast  expanse  on  the  opposite  side  of 
the  mountain,  which  in  its  turn  reached  to  the  horizon,  as 
the  sun  gently  rose  over  the  tremulous  mist ;  but  the  sun- 
shadow  seemed  to  lack  the  cold  mystery  of  the  moon-shadow 
it  had  driven  away,  and  scarcely  gave  one  time  to  appreciate 
its  own  marvellous  effects  before  the  mist  itself  began  slowly 
to  rise,  and  to  envelop  us  as  in  a  winding-sheet.  For  half 
an  hour  or  more  we  were  in  the  clouds,  and  could  see  noth- 
ing; then  suddenly  they  rolled  away,  and  revealed  the  mag- 
nificent panorama  which  had  been  the  object  of  our  pil- 
grimage. Even  without  the  singular  impression  which  has 
captivated  the  religious  imagination  of  the  devotees  of  two 
faiths,  the  peculiar  conditions  under  which  this  remarkable 
mountain  was  exhibited  to  us  were  calculated  to  inspire  a 
sentiment  of  awe,  which  would  naturally  be  heightened  in 
the  minds  of  the  ignorant  and  superstitious  by  the  discovery 
on  its  summit  of  a  resemblance  to  a  giant's  footprint. 

We  heard  that  there  was  another  and  much  easier  way 
down,  but  it  led  in  the  wrong  direction.  Fortunately  my 
companion,  having  taken  counsel  with  himself  during  the 
sleepless  hours  of  the  night,  had  now  screwed  up  his  courage 
for  the  descent,  which  we  accomplished  without  further  ad- 
venture ;  and  we  reached  the  hut  where  we  had  left  our 
horses  in  time  to  proceed  on  our  journey  the  same  day  to 
visit  some  coffee  plantations  which  had  beenjecently  opened 
in  the  neighboring  district  of  Safifragam. 


CHAPTER  II. 

REVOLUTIONARY    EPISODES    IN    ITALY    IN    THE    YEAR    1848, 
AND  AN   ADVENTURE    IN    GREECE. 

In  the  year  1846,  my  father,  who  was  then  Chief-Justice 
of  Ceylon,  came  on  a  long  leave  to  England.  I  was  on  the 
point  of  going  up  to  Cambridge  at  the  time,  but  when  he 
announced  that  he  intended  to  travel  for  a  couple  of  years 
with  my  mother  on  the  Continent,  I  represented  so  strongly 
the  superior  advantages,  from  an  educational  point  of  view, 
of  European  travel  over  ordinary  scholastic  training,  and 
my  arguments  were  so  urgently  backed  by  my  mother,  that 
I  found  myself,  to  my  great  delight,  transferred  from  the 
quiet  of  a  Warwickshire  vicarage  to  the  Champs  Elyse'es  in 
Paris ;  and,  after  passing  the  winter  there,  spent  the  follow- 
ing year  roaming  over  Germany,  Switzerland,  and  the  Tyrol, 
by  rail  in  the  few  cases  where  railways  existed,  but  more 
often  by  the  delightful  but  now  obsolete  method  oi  vcttiirino ; 
while,  for  a  couple  of  months,  fishing-rod  in  hand,  we  explored 
on  foot  the  wild  and  then  little  known  valleys  of  the  Tyrol. 
I  often  wondered,  while  thus  engaged,  whether  I  was  not 
more  usefully  and  instructively  employed  than  laboring  pain- 
fully over  the  differential  calculus;  and  whether  the  exe- 
crable patois  of  the  peasants  in  the  Italian  valleys,  which  I 
took  great  pains  in  acquiring,  was  not  likely  to  be  of  quite 
as  much  use  to  me  in  after-life  as  ancient  Greek. 

Meantime,  mutterings  of  the  coming  revolutionary  storm 
had  been  heard  all  over  Europe,  and  it  was  just  bursting 
over  Italy  as  we  descended  into  that  country  at  the  close 
of  1847.     Indeed,  Italy  has  always  proved  an  excellent  field 


20  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE    OF   ADVENTURE. 

for  moss-gathering  since  the  clay  when,  as  I  entered  Rome 
for  the  first  time,  I  passed  cannon  pointed  down  the  streets, 
and  found  the  whole  town  seething  with  revolution — to  the 
year  1862,  when,  as  the  guest  of  a  regiment  of  Piedmontese 
cavalry,  I  hunted  brigands  in  the  plains  of  the  Basilicata 
and  Capitanata.  The  incidents  of  my  first  visit  are  so  long 
ago  now,  that  I  only  remember  their  most  salient  features, 
but  these  are  indelibly  stamped  upon  my  memory.  I  shall 
never  forget  joining  a  roaring  mob  one  evening,  bent  I  knew 
not  upon  what  errand,  and  getting  forced  by  the  pressure  of 
the  crowd,  and  my  own  eagerness,  into  the  front  rank,  just 
as  we  reached  the  Austrian  Legation,  and  seeing  the  ladders 
passed  to  the  front,  and  placed  against  the  wall,  and  the  arms 
torn  down;  then  I  remember,  rather  from  love  of  excitement 
than  any  strong  political  sympathy,  taking  hold,  with  hun- 
dreds of  others,  of  the  ropes  which  were  attached  to  them, 
and  dragging  them  in  triumph  to  the  Piazza  del  Popolo, 
where  a  certain  Ciceroachio,  who  was  a  great  tribune  of  the 
people  in  those  days,  and  a  wood-merchant,  had  a  couple 
of  carts  loaded  with  wood  standing  ready ;  and  I  remember 
their  contents  being  tumultuously  upset,  and  heaped  into  a 
pile,  and  the  Austrian  arms  being  dragged  on  the  top  of 
them,  and  a  lady— I  think  the  Princess  Pamphili  Doria,  who 
was  passing  in  a  carriage  at  the  time— being  compelled  to 
descend,  and  being  handed  a  flaming  torch,  with  which  she 
was  requested  to  light  the  bonfire,  which  blazed  up  amid  the 
frantic  demonstrations  of  delight  of  a  yeljing  crowd,  who 
formed  round  it  a  huge  ring,  joining  hands,  dancing  and 
capering  like  demons,  in  all  of  which  I  took  an  active  part, 
getting  home  utterly  exhausted,  and  feeling  that  somehow 
or  other  I  had  deserved  well  of  my  country. 

And  I  remember  upon  another  occasion  being  roused  from 
my  sleep,  about  one  or  two  in  the  morning,  by  the  murmur 
of  many  voices,  and  looking  out  of  my  window  and  seeino-  a 
dense  crowd  moving  beneath,  and  rushing  into  my  clothes 
and  joining  it— for  even  in  those  early  days  I  had  a  certain 


REVOLUTIONARY  EPISODES    IN    ITALY.  21 

moss-gathering  instinct — and  being  borne  along  I  knew  not 
whither,  and  finding  myself  at  last  one  of  a  shrieking,  howl- 
ing mob  at  the  doors  of  the  Propaganda,  against  which  heavy 
blows  were  being  directed  by  improvised  battering-rams; 
and  I  remember  the  doors  crashing  in,  and  the  mob  crash- 
ing in  after  them,  to  find  empty  cells  and  deserted  corridors, 
for  the  monks  had  sought  safety  in  flight.  And  I  remember 
standing  on  the  steps  of  St.  Peter's  while  Pope  Pio  Nono 
gave  his  blessing  to  the  volunteers  that  were  leaving  for 
Lombardy  to  fight  against  the  Austrians,  and  seeing  the  tears 
roll  down  his  cheeks — as  I  supposed,  because  he  hated  so 
much  to  have  to  do  it.  These  are  events  which  are  calcu- 
lated to  leave  a  lasting  impression  on  the  youthful  imagina- 
tion. Unfortunately,  in  those  days  newspaper  correspond- 
ence was  in  its  infancy,  and  posterity  will  have  but  a  com- 
paratively meagre  record  of  the  exciting  scenes  and  stirring 
events  of  the  great  revolutionary  year. 

If  it  was  disagreeable  to  the  pope  to  bless  the  Italian 
patriots  in  their  struggle  against  Austria,  it  was  still  more 
hateful  to  the  King  of  Naples  to  have  to  grant  a  constitu- 
tion to  his  subjects,  and  swear  to  keep  it  upon  crossed 
swords,  which  I  saw  him  do  with  great  solemnity  in  a  church, 
after  a  revolution  which  had  lasted  three  days,  and  in  which 
at  length  the  troops  refused  to  fire  upon  the  people.  It  was 
true  that  he  had  no  intention  of  keeping  his  oath,  and  broke 
it  shortly  afterwards,  but  the  moment  was  none  the  less  hu- 
miliating; and  his  face  was  an  interesting  study.  Some  idea 
of  the  confusion  which  reigned  in  all  parts  of  Italy  about 
this  time  may  be  gathered  from  an  incident  which  happened 
to  my  father  and  myself  at  Leghorn  on  the  day  of  our  ar- 
rival in  that  town.  It  had  been  more  or  less  in  a  chronic 
state  of  revolution  for  some  weeks  past.  The  grand  duke 
still  reigned  in  Florence,  but  he  had  lost  control  of  Leghorn, 
which  was  practically  in  the  hands  of  the  facchini  and  the 
scum  of  the  population.  Considering  themselves  the  mas- 
ters of  the  situation,  the  porters  who  carried  our  luggage  from 


2  2  EPISODES    IN    A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

the  quay  to  the  hotel  made  such  an  exorbitant  charge  that 
we  refused  to  pay  it.  They  accordingly  summoned  us  be- 
fore the  magistrate.  After  hearing  the  case,  that  worthy  de- 
cided that  the  charge  was  reasonable,  and  that  we  must  pay 
it.  With  the  instinct  of  resisting  extortion  to  the  last,  which 
is  characteristic  of  the  Briton,  we  persisted  in  our  refusal 
notwithstanding  this  judgment;  upon  which  the  magistrate 
said  that  in  that  case  it  would  be  his  painful  duty  to  commit 
us  to  prison.  We  replied  that  we  were  travelling  for  infor- 
mation— moss-gathering,  in  fact;  that  we  were  much  inter- 
ested in  Italian  prisons;  that  we  could  not  have  a  better 
opportunity  of  examining  into  their  management  and  inter- 
nal economy  than  by  being  committed  to  one;  and  that  we 
were  quite  ready  to  go,  provided  that  he  would  take  the  con- 
sequences. And  we  reminded  him  that  we  had  still  a  British 
minister  at  Florence.  It  will  be  seen  from  this  that  we 
were  of  that  class  of  tourists  who  are  a  perfect  pest  to  un- 
happy diplomats.  We  were  conscious  of  this  at  the  time, 
but  reconciled  ourselves  to  it  by  the  reflection  that  a  great 
principle  was  at  stake.  Moreover,  we  had  a  suspicion,  which 
proved  well  founded,  that  matters  would  never  be  allowed 
to  reach  that  point.  Our  refusal  to  satisfy  the  demands  of 
the  facchini  completely  nonplussed  the  poor  judge :  he  now 
appealed  to  them  to  moderate  their  claim,  but  this  they 
sternly  refused  to  do;  upon  which,  after  a  few  moments' 
sombre  reflection,  he  thrust  his  hand  into  his  pocket,  and,  to 
our  intense  astonishment,  paid  them  the  full -amount  of  their 
extortionate  charge  himself  We  suggested  to  the  hotel- 
keeper,  who  had  accompanied  us  to  the  court,  that  the  dis- 
pensation of  justice  on  these  principles  must  be  an  expen- 
sive operation ;  but  he  said  that,  on  the  contrary,  it  simpli- 
fied justice  very  much,  for  the  judge  always  gave  judgment 
in  favor  of  the  mob,  knowing  very  well  that,  if  he  did  not, 
he  would  be  stabbed  on  his  way  home  the  same  evening, 
and  that  few  ever  thought  of  resisting  any  demand  which 
was  backed  by  an  institution  then  existing  at  Leghorn  simi- 


REVOLUTIONARY    EPISODES   IN    ITALY.  23 

lar  to  the  Camorra  at  Naples.  The  course  we  had  taken 
had  left  him  no  other  alternative  but  to  satisfy  the  claim  out 
of  his  own  pocket.  So  we  gave  the  amount  to  our  host,  and 
told  him  at  once  to  reimburse  the  unhappy  functionary. 

We  had  scarcely  reached  the  hotel  before  we  had  the  sat- 
isfaction of  seeing  our  facc/iitii  friends  receive  a  lesson  which 
our  late  experiences  with  them  enabled  us  keenly  to  appre- 
ciate. A  boat  approached  the  quay  containing  two  young 
Englishmen.  Not  only  was  their  nationality  unmistakable, 
but  they  appeared — what  they  afterwards  turned  out  to  be — 
university  men  in  the  prime  of  "  biceps."  On  the  boat  touch- 
ing the  quay,  it  was  boarded  by  half  a  dozen  facc/il/n',  each 
one  attempting  to  grab  something,  were  it  only  an  umbrella, 
for  which  to  claim  payment.  In  vain  did  the  travellers 
struggle  to  select  two,  which  was  more  than  enough  for  all 
their  requirements.  Each  porter  obstinately  clung  to  what 
he  had  seized,  and  refused  to  part  with  it.  One  of  them  at 
last  sprang  on  shore,  followed  by  a  young  Englishman,  who, 
finding  he  could  not  regain  possession  of  his  property,  in- 
continently knocked  his  man  down.  This  was  the  signal 
for  a  general  assault  upon  the  travellers,  who,  from  the  beau- 
tifully scientific  way  in  which  they  handled  their  fists,  must 
have  been  pupils  of  some  great  master  in  the  noble  art  of 
self-defence.  In  less  time  than  it  takes  to  write  it,  six  por- 
ters were  lying  in  a  heap  on  the  quay:  they  were  so  taken 
by  surprise  they  had  not  even  time  to  draw  their  knives, 
and  so  demoralized  that  those  who  were  not  too  much 
stunned  to  do  so  crawled  off,  leaving  the  two  travellers  to 
carry  their  own  baggage  triumphantly  into  the  hotel. 

I  think,  however,  it  is  better  to  be  in  a  town  which  is  com- 
pletely in  the  hands  of  the  mob,  than  in  one  which  is  half 
held  by  the  people  and  half  by  the  government.  This  hap- 
pened to  us  at  Messina.  The  Mole  and  fort  at  the  end  were 
held  by  the  Neapolitan  troops,  but  the  town  was  in  the  hands 
of  the  populace.  It  was  difficult  to  land  except  at  night,  be- 
cause during  the  day  even  a  foreign  flag  ran  the  risk  of  be- 


24  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

ing  fired  upon  from  the  Mole.  However,  we  succeeded  in 
doing  so  without  mishap — though  we  had  not  been  long  on 
shore  before  we  began  to  repent  of  our  curiosity,  and  to  wish 
ourselves  at  sea  again. 

We  had  hardly  taken  up  our  quarters  at  a  hotel  before 
a  Neapolitan  man-of-war  entered  the  harbor  and  began  to 
bombard  us — one  ball  entering  the  wall  so  near  our  window 
that  by  making  a  long  arm  one  could  touch  it,  which  illus- 
trates the  folly  of  going  to  a  hotel  on  the  quay  of  a  town 
which  is  liable  to  bombardment.  We  found  all  the  streets 
by  which  the  enemy  were  likely  to  attempt  an  assault  de- 
fended by  sandbag  batteries,. in  many  of  which  cannon  had 
been  already  placed.  While  the  work  of  fortification  was 
being  pushed  forward  energetically,  at  one  point  I  came 
upon  a  party  of  Messinese  in  despair  at  being  unable  to  haul 
a  gun  up  to  a  battery  which  had  been  erected  on  the  hillside 
behind  the  town,  when  their  difficulty  was  solved  by  a  party 
of  British  tars,  apparently  on  shore  for  a  spree,  who  laid  hold 
with  a  will,  and  in  a  few  moments  had  placed  the  gun  in 
position.  Pushing  my  explorations  rashly  in  the  direction  of 
the  Mole,  I  heard  a  shot  fired  and  a  bullet  whistle  past  me, 
and  had  just  time  to  throw  myself  flat  behind  a  low  wall  to 
escape  the  volley  which  followed.  I  had  strayed  uncon- 
sciously on  to  the  neutral  ground  between  the  fort  and  the 
town,  and  had  crossed  unobserved  an  open  space  which  in- 
tervened between  the  wall  under  which  I  was  lying  and  the 
nearest  street,  which  was  barricaded.  I  had  not  approached 
the  wall  from  this  direction ;  but  this,  I  observed,  was  the 
nearest  shelter,  and  I  calculated  that  it  was  at  least  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  yards  back  to  the  town — an  unpleasantly  long 
distance  to  run  the  gauntlet  of  a  heavy  fire.  So  I  lay  still 
for  at  least  a  quarter  of  an  hour  pondering.  At  the  end  of 
that  time  I  saw  a  sympathetic  citizen  waving  to  me  from  the 
fort  in  an  opposite  direction.  Indeed,  I  now  perceived  that 
I  was  an  object  of  interest  to  a  good  many  of  the  towns- 
people, who    had    discovered    my  unpleasant   position,  and 


REVOLUTIONARY    EPISODES    IN    ITALY.  2$ 

were  watching  me  from  sundry  safe  corners.  As  the  friendly 
signaller  indicated  that  I  was  to  keep  along  the  wall  in  the 
opposite  direction  from  which  I  had  come,  although  it  seemed 
to  slant  somewhat  towards  the  enemy,  I  followed  it  on  my 
hands  and  knees  to  a  point  where  it  turned  off  straight 
towards  the  fort :  here  I  perceived  a  ditch  turning  towards 
the  town,  in  which,  by  lying  flat  on  the  bottom  and  wriggling 
along  snake-fashion,  I  thought  I  could  escape  observation. 
It  took  me  a  long  while  to  accomplish  this  operation,  and  as 
the  ditch  was  muddy  in  places,  dirtied  me  considerably.  At 
last  I  thought  I  was  at  long  enough  range  to  risk  a  rush 
across  the  open  for  the  remaining  distance,  and  this  I  ac- 
complished successfully,  a  harmless  bullet  or  two  being  sent 
after  me  by  the  garrison,  who  were  not  expecting  my  appear- 
ance in  this  direction,  and  who  still  supposed  me  crouched 
behind  the  wall.  I  was  warmly  welcomed  by  my  rescuer, 
who  was  by  this  time  surrounded  by  a  small  group  of  spec- 
tators, by  whom  I  was  accompanied  back  to  the  hotel,  a  sort 
of  mild  hero,  their  interest  being  increased  by  the  fact  that  I 
was  a  sympathetic  Englishman. 

We  afterwards  went  on  to  Catania  and  Syracuse,  and  at 
the  latter  place  were  present  at  the  peaceable  transfer  of  the 
town  from  the  royal  to  the  popular  authorities.  All  the  offi- 
cials, finding  further  resistance  hopeless,  handed  over  their 
functions  in  the  most  amiable  way  to  those  appointed  by  the 
people,  and  the  small  garrison  vacated  their  premises  to  the 
national  guard  without  firing  a  shot.  Indeed,  wherever  there 
were  sentries  posted,  they  were  relieved  with  all  due  military 
ceremony  by  the  new  troops;  and  the  royal  soldiery,  together 
with  the  civilians,  were  embarked  in  a  transport  which  had 
been  sent  to  convey  them  away.  So  complete  was  the 
popular  success  at  one  time  throughout  the  kingdom  that 
it  was  difficult  to  believe  that  in  a  few  months  the  country 
would  lapse  into  a  worse  condition,  if  possible,  than  that 
from  which  it  had  emerged,  and  have  to  wait  for  another 
twelvt2  years  for  its  deliverance. 

2 


26  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

If,  in  presenting  my  moss  to  my  readers,  I  am  compelled 
to  have  recourse  to  personal  narrative,  it  is  because  at  this 
distance  of  time  I  can  thereby  best  illustrate  the  political 
and  social  conditions  of  the  country  in  which  I  happened  to 
be  at  the  time.  Here  is  a  little  bit  of  Greek  moss  char- 
acteristic of  the  year  1848  in  Athens.  The  newly  constructed 
little  country  which  had  just  before  been  erected  into  an  in- 
dependent monarchy,  felt  a  ripple  of  the  wave  of  revolu- 
tionary sentiment  which  swept  over  Europe  in  that  eventful 
year.  In  order  to  overawe  the  population  of  the  capital, 
King  Otho  had  quartered  in  it  a  regiment  of  Mainotes — a 
reckless,  dare-devil  set  of  men  recruited  in  the  most  lawless 
province  in  his  kingdom,  imperfectly  disciplined,  and  still 
more  imperfectly  educated  in  any  moral  code.  One  morn- 
ing at  six  o'clock  I  went  with  my  sketch-book  to  the  tomb 
of  Socrates,  intending  to  take  a  sketch  of  the  Acropolis  from 
the  neighborhood  of  that  lonely  spot  before  breakfast.  I 
had  not  been  above  a  quarter  of  an  hour  at  work  when  a 
burly  figure  approached  me,  and  addressed  me  in  Greek.  I 
was  sufficiently  fresh  from  school  to  be  able  to  make  out 
that  he  asked  me  what  o'clock  it  was.  I  looked  at  my  watch 
and  told  him,  when  he  put  out  his  hand  as  though  to  take  it. 
I  instinctively  sprang  back;  upon  which  he  laughed,  threw 
back  his  big  cloak  and  displayed  the  uniform  of  a  Mainote 
soldier,  at  the  same  time  drawing  his  bayonet.  He  did  all 
this  with  rather  a  good-natured  air,  as  though  not  wishing  to 
resort  to  violence  unless  it  was  absolutely  necessary;  at  the 
same  time  he  stooped,  picked  up  a  rather  expensive  many- 
bladed  knife,  with  which  I  had  been  cutting  my  pencil,  and 
put  it  in  his  pocket.  In  the  meantime  I  had  folded  my 
camp-stool,  which  was  one  of  those  used  by  sketchers,  with 
a  sort  of  walking-stick  end,  and  which,  in  default  of  a  better 
weapon  of  self-defence,  I  thought  might  be  turned  to  account. 
I  expected  every  moment  to  be  attacked  for  the  sake  of  my 
watch,  which  he  told  me  to  give  up,  but  which  I  had  deter- 
mined to  make  a  struggle  for;  on  my  pretending  not  to  un- 


AN   ADVENTURE    IN    GREECE,  2^ 

derstand  him,  he  stood  watching  me,  while  I  put  up  my 
drawing  things  with  as  much  sangfroid  as  I  could  assume, 
with  the  view  of  beating  a  retreat.  When  I  walked  off,  he 
walked  behind  me  in  most  unpleasantly  close  proximity.  I 
did  not  like  to  take  to  ignominious  flight  for  fear  of  precipi- 
tating matters,  as  I  could  not  feel  sure  of  outstripping  him  ; 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  he  trod  so  closely  on  my  heels  that 
I  felt  a  constant  premonitory  shiver  down  my  back  of  six 
inches  of  his  horrible  bayonet  running  into  it.  I  certainly 
never  had  a  walk  so  full  of  discomfort  in  my  life.  Nor  could 
I  account  for  his  conduct.  He  had  got  my  knife,  and  evi- 
dently wanted  my  watch ;  then  why  did  he  not  use  his 
bayonet  and  take  it  ?  As  I  was  thus  unpleasantly  ruminat- 
ing, I  perceived  in  the  distance  the  king's  coachman  exer- 
cising a  pair  of  his  majesty's  horses  in  a  break.  I  knew  it 
from  afar,  for  it  was  the  only  turnout  of  the  kind  in  Athens. 
I  hesitated  no  longer,  but  started  off  for  it  at  my  best  pace 
across  country.  I  need  not  have  been  in  such  a  hurry,  for 
the  soldier  did  not  follow  me,  but  continued  calmly  to  walk 
towards  the  town.  On  reaching  the  break  I  eagerly  explained 
to  the  coachman,  who  was  a  German,  what  had  happened. 
He  told  me  at  once  to  jump  up  beside  him,  and  as  the  plain 
happened  to  be  tolerably  level,  put  his  horses  into  a  gallop 
across  it,  so  as  to  cut  off  the  soldier.  The  latter  no  sooner 
saw  himself  pursued  than  he  took  to  his  heels  ;  but  we  over- 
took him  before  he  could  reach  the  town.  He  did  not  at- 
tempt to  deny  the  theft,  overawed  by  the  royal  equipage,  but 
at  once  gave  up  his  plunder. 

"Now,"  I  said  to  my  good-natured  Jehu,  "let  us  insist 
upon  his  accompanying  us  to  the  police ;  the  man  deserves 
punishment." 

"Rest  satisfied  with  having  got  your  property  back,"  he 
replied.  "In  the  first  place,  he  would  not  consent  to  come, 
and  I  doubt  whether  we  could  make  him  ;  and,  in  the  second, 
it  is  not  my  business  to  mix  myself  up  in  such  an  affair." 

So,  to  my  great  disgust,  we  let  him  walk  off. 


28  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

I  then  asked  the  coachman  why  he  had  been  satisfied 
with  taking  my  knife;  he  knew  I  had  a  watch,  and  if  he  had 
searched  me  he  would  have  found  that  I  had  money.  I  was 
unable  to  account  for  his  forbearance. 

"  I  will  show  you  how  to  account  for  it,"  he  replied,  with 
which  enigmatical  response  I  was  obliged  for  the  moment  to 
be  satisfied. 

A  few  moments  later  we  passed  a  piece  of  a  ruined  wall, 
behind  which  three  or  four  soldiers  were  standing. 

"Do  you  see  those  men?"  said  the  coachman;  "they  are 
his  comrades.  They  saw  you  go  out  alone  to  a  solitary 
place — a  thing  you  should  never  do  again  while  you  are  in 
Athens — and  they  sent  one  of  their  number  after  you,  so  as 
to  prevent  your  escaping  them  by  going  back  some  other 
way;  but  this  was  the  place  where  you  were  to  have  been 
robbed  on  your  return,  and  the  plunder  equally  divided. 
The  thief  could  not  resist  pocketing  the  knife  on  his  own 
account;  but  he  saw  no  reason  why  he  should  incur  all  the 
risk  of  committing  a  murder,  if  he  could  not  keep  all  the 
spoil  to  himself  afterwards." 

As  I  felt  sure  I  could  recognize  the  man,  I  called  on  the 
British  consul  to  consult  him  as  to  the  expediency  of  prose- 
cuting the  matter  further.  But  he  took  very  much  the  same 
view  of  it  as  the  king's  coachman. 

"  If  you  get  the  man  punished,"  he  said — "which,  as  you 
are  a  foreigner,  you  will  very  probably  be  able  to  do — you 
will  have  to  leave  Athens  the  next  day,  for  your  life  will  not 
be  safe — and  the  punishment  will  be  light,  for  these  troops 
are  kept  here  for  the  express  purpose  of  intimidating  the 
population,  and  as  soon  as  you  are  gone  he  will  be  released. 
If  you  are  bent  upon  going  to  solitary  spots  alone,  take  a 
pistol  with  you;  you  might  have  shot  that  man  and  noth- 
ing would  have  been  said." 

The  present  Sir  Aubrey  Paul,  who  was  travelling  with  us 
at  the  time,  and  who  was  about  my  own  age,  was  delighted 
when  he  heard  of  this  advice. 


AN   ADVENTURE    IN    GREECE.  29 

"Let  US  devote  ourselves,"  he  said,  "to  the  pleasing  sport 
of  trying  to  get  robbed,  and  of  shooting  Mainote  soldiers. 
We  shall  be  conferring  a  benefit  upon  the  inhabitants,  and 
amusing  ourselves."  So  we  armed  ourselves  with  our  re- 
volvers, and  at  all  hours  of  the  day  and  night  used  to  prowl 
about  in  the  most  secluded  localities,  in  the  hope  of  finding 
sport.  We  were  very  young  and  silly  in  those  days ;  and 
though  we  often  encountered  Mainote  soldiers,  both  alone 
and  in  company,  a  merciful  Providence  deprived  us  of  any 
valid  excuse  for  shooting  any  of  them. 

But  if  Athens  was  in  a  lawless  condition  at  this  time,  we 
had  experiences  illustrating  the  reverse  of  the  picture  in 
other  parts  of  the  country.  My  father  chartered  a  native 
schooner  at  the  Pirceus,  and  had  her  nicely  cleaned  out,  her 
hold  partially  filled  with  white  sand,  over  which  were  spread 
carpets ;  in  fact,  we  fitted  her  out  as  a  yacht  with  such  hum- 
ble appliances  as  were  at  our  disposal,  and  started  for  a 
cruise  amid  the  Isles  of  Greece,  our  party  consisting  of  four 
gentlemen  and  two  ladies. 

After  the  first  day,  however,  the  weather  and  the  accom- 
modation combined  proved  too  much  for  the  ladies.  The 
cook,  I  remember,  always  would  make  the  salad  in  his  old 
straw-hat.  So  we  put  into  the  exquisite  land-locked  little 
harbor  of  Poros,  the  memory  of  which  still  rests  upon  my 
mind  like  a  dream,  to  consider  in  calm  water  what  should 
be  done— for  we  men  did  not  at  all  like  the  idea  of  aban- 
doning our  cruise.  We  had  happe»ned  to  cast  anchor  just 
off  an  extensive  orange-grove;  and  when  we  landed  with  the 
ladies  to  explore  its  beauties,  they  became  completely  fas- 
cinated by  the  ideal  charm  of  its  position.  There  was  a 
delightful  wooden  summer-house — in  fact,  almost  a  summer 
cottage,  except  that  it  had  only  trellis  walls,  over  which 
crept  heavy  vines;  and  there  was  a  gurgling  brook  of  crystal 
water  rippling  past  it,  and  wide-spreading  umbrageous  trees, 
besides  oranges  and  lemons,  and  a  lovely  view  over  the  Bay 
and  the  Island  of  Poros  opposite — for  this  orange-garden 
was  on  the  mainland. 


30  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE, 

"Can't  you  land  us  here,  and  leave  us?"  exclaimed  the 
younger  and  the  fairer  of  the  ladies.  "It  will  be  quite,  too 
awfully  quite,  delicious!"  I  don't  think  those  were  the 
words  she  used,  but  they  would  have  been  had  she  spoken 
seven-and-thirty  years  later.  Ah  me!  she  is  seven-and- 
thirty  years  older  now,  and  has  gathered  moss  of  all  sorts. 
We  had  a  most  willing  and  intelligent  Greek  dragoman,  by_ 
name  Demetri — all  Greek  dragomans  are  Demetris — and  he 
assured  us  that  he  could  guarantee  the  safety  of  the  ladies, 
if  we  liked  to  leave  them  under  his  charge.  It  seemed  rather 
a  rash  thing  to  do;  but  that  was  a  matter  for  the  considera- 
tion of  the  person  responsible  for  them — and  he  was  willing 
to  take  the  risk,  as  were  the  ladies  themselves;  so  we  landed 
them,  bag  and  baggage.  We  made  a  beautiful  bower  of 
bliss  for  them  under  the  orange-trees,  with  canvas  and  car- 
pets and  shawls,  and  landed  mattresses  and  cooking  uten- 
sils, and  everything  needful  for  a  week's  camping.  Demetri, 
with  the  assistance  of  a  boy,  undertook  not  merely  to  pro- 
tect them,  but  to  procure  supplies,  cook  for  them,  and  wait 
upon  them  generally;  and  so,  with  a  parting  injunction  to 
these  deserted  fair  ones  to  betake  themselves  to  the  summer- 
house  in  case  of  rain,  we  sailed  away  without  having  seen  a 
human  being  during  the  whole  process  of  their  installation 
on  shore.  We  visited  Hydra,  and  Paros,  and  Naxos,  and 
sundry  other  islands,  landing  at  quiet  coves  where  there 
were  no  inconvenient  officials  to  ask  for  our  passports,  and 
make  us  pay  port-dues — shooting  and  fishing  and  bathing; 
and  so  to  Argos,  from  whence  we  made  an  excursion  to 
Tiryns  and  Mycenae ;  and  so  back  to  Poros,  feeling  rather 
nervous  and  guilty  as  we  approached  that  port,  and  specu- 
lated upon  the  possible  chances  of  mishap  which  might  have 
occurred  to  the  ladies  during  our  week's  absence.  Our  fears 
were  set  at  rest  as  we  neared  our  anchorage,  and  perceived 
a  great  waving  of  pocket-handkerchiefs;  but  lo!  we  dis- 
cerned also  the  waving  of  a  hat!  This  was  the  more  re- 
markable as  the  Greek  costume  was  at  that  time  almost 


AN    ADVENTURE    IN    GREECE,  3 1 

universal,  and  a  stove-pipe  hat  did  not  form  part  of  it ;  so 
we  pulled  ashore  full  of  curiosity,  and  were  introduced  by 
the  ladies  to  a  gentleman  in  irreproachable  Western  cos- 
tume— the  proprietor  of  the  garden,  in  fact.  His  residence 
was  about  two  miles  distant,  and  he  had  been  much  sur- 
prised, on  visiting  his  garden  the  day  after  our  departure,  to 
find  it  occupied  by  two  errant  damsels,  protected  only  by  a 
dragoman.  Fortunately  he  had  spent  some  years  of  his  life 
in  civilized  Europe,  and  had  now  returned  to  his  native  land 
with  a  fortune;  so  he  could  appreciate  a  lady  when  he  saw 
one — even  in  unlawful  occupation  of  his  garden.  So  far 
from  resenting  it,  he  was  perfectly  enchanted  with  an  act  of 
trespass  which  had  provided  him  such  guests,  and  he  had 
danced  attendance  upon  them  from  morning  till  night  dur- 
ing all  the  time  of  our  absence.  He  had  invited  them  to 
his  residence,  where  he  had  a  wife  and  family;  but  was 
evidently  so  much  relieved  at  his  invitation  being  declined 
that  it  is  probable  that  he  kept  the  whole  affair  a  secret,  as 
he  seemed  to  enjoy  the  monopoly  of  his  self-imposed  service. 
The  result  was  that  the  camp  was  supplied  with  every  deli- 
cacy which  the  resources  of  the  country  could  supply  in  the 
way  of  comestibles,  and  numerous  articles  of  furniture  were 
added  to  the  slender  stock  of  those  we  had  left  behind  ;  so 
that,  in  spite  of  the  waving  of  pocket-handkerchiefs,  I  believe 
our  reappearance,  which  was  to  put  an  end  to  this  romantic 
sojourn  among  the  Greek  orange-groves,  was  viewed  with  re- 
gret rather  than  otherwise. 


CHAPTER   III. 

MY    FIRST   EXPERIENCES    IN   DIPLOMACY. 

From  Greece  we  went  to  Egypt  and  spent  a  month  on  the 
Nile,  finally  riding  across  the  desert  to  Suez  by  the  route 
then  supposed  to  have  been  the  track  of  the  Israelites — a 
theory  which  subsequent  investigation  has  entirely  exploded. 
By  this  time  all  idea  of  Cambridge  had  been  given  up,  and  I 
returned  to  Ceylon  as  my  Other's  private  secretary.  Here 
I  spent  three  years,  devoting  my  time  largely  to  sport  as  well 
as  to  law,  my  avocations  and  amusements  enabling  me  to 
travel  over  the  island  pretty  thoroughly.  My  residence  here 
was  further  enlivened  by  the  excitement  incident  on  what 
was  called  a  rebellion  in  the  Kandyan  Province — a  very 
trumpery  affair,  to  which  I  shall  have  occasion  to  refer  later 
— and  by  an  expedition  which  I  made  on  the  invitation  of 
Jung  Bahadoor,  who  spent  a  few  days  in  Ceylon,  and  whom 
I  subsequently  accompanied  to  Nepaul.  This  visit  into  a 
little  known  and  most  interesting  country,  and  the  trip 
through  India  which  I  afterwards  made  with  the  present 
Duke  of  Westminster,  the  Hon.  Mr.  Leveson  Cower,  and  the 
Hon.  Captain,  now  Admiral  Egerton,  formed  the  subject  of  a 
book  which  I  published  a  year  later  in  England.  Meantime 
I  had  got  called  to  the  Ceylon  bar,  and  had  some  curious  le- 
gal experiences,  not  the  least  of  which  was  that  at  the  age  of 
twenty-two  I  had  been  engaged  in  twenty-three  murder  cases. 
This  success,  and  the  desire  I  had  to  bring  out  my  book, 
induced  me  to  return  to  England  for  the  purpose  of  being 
called  to  the  English  bar.  While  I  was  engaged  in  this 
very  uninteresting  operation,  my  journey  to  Nepaul  was  pub- 


MY    FIRST   EXPERIENCES    IN    DIPLOMACY.  33 

lished  by  Murray,  with  such  satisfactory  results  that  I  be- 
came bitten  with  a  mania  for  authorship.  The  difficulty  was 
to  find  something  to  write  about ;  this  I  solved  by  decid- 
ing to  go  to  some-  out-of-the-way  place,  and  do  something 
that  nobody  else  had  done.  Unfortunately,  I  had  only  the 
long  vacation  at  my  disposal.  The  only  part  of  Europe 
within  reach,  fulfilling  the  required  conditions,  seemed  to  me 
to  be  Russian  Lapland,  for  I  heard  from  an  Archangel  mer- 
chant that  the  Kem  and  other  rivers  in  that  region  swarmed 
with  guileless  salmon  who  had  never  been  offered  a  fly,  and 
that  it  would  be  easy  to  cross  over  to  Spitzbergen  and  get  a 
shot  at  some  white  bears  ;  besides,  too,  it  appeared  proba- 
ble that  I  should  come  across  other  uncommon  varieties  of 
game.  I  propounded  this  scheme  to  my  friend  Mr.  Oswald 
Smith,  who  agreed  to  accompany  me  ;  and,  wqII  equipped 
with  the  necessary  tackle,  we  started  one  day  in  August,  1852, 
for  the  shores  of  the  White  Sea.  On  our  arrival  at  St.  Pe- 
tersburg we  found,  to  our  dismay,  that  we  had  to  deposit  the 
whole  value  of  our  equipment  in  cash  before  we  were  al- 
lowed to  bring  our  guns  and  rods  into  the  country,  and  then 
only  on  the  express  condition  that  we  should  leave  Russia 
by  our  port  of  entry.  This  disgusted  us  so  much  that  we 
packed  our  whole  sporting  apparatus  back  to  England  with- 
out entering  them  at  all,  and  thus  found  ourselves  stranded 
in  Russia,  and  unable  to  carry  out  the  object  of  our  journey. 
We  therefore  bent  our  steps  southward,  visited  Moscow,  the 
great  fair  at  Nijni  Novgorod,  went  down  the  Volga,  through 
the  country  of  the  Don  Cossacks,  across  the  Sea  of  Azof, 
and  all  over  the  Crimea,  finally  leaving  Russia  at  Odessa, 
and  returning  home  by  way  of  the  Danube.  As  it  turned 
out,  I  owed  the  Russian  authorities  at  St.  Petersburg  a  debt 
of  the  deepest  gratitude  for  the  journey  thus  forced  upon  us 
in  default  of  a  better,  as  the  book  which  I  wrote  describing  it, 
and  especially  the  Crimea,  appeared  at  the  moment  that  war 
was  declared  by  England  against  Russia,  and  a  military  ex- 
2* 


34  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE  OF   ADVENTURE. 

pedltion,  which  should  have  for  its  objective  point  the  Tauric 
peninsula,  had  been  decided  upon. 

Thus  it  happened  that  in  the  early  part  of  the  year  1854 
I  was  startled  one  morning  by  the  clattering  of  a  mounted 
orderly,  who  reined  up  at  the  door  of  my  modest  lodging  in 
Half-Moon  Street,  and  impressed  my  worthy  landlady  with 
a  notion  of  my  importance  which  she  had  not  hitherto  enter- 
tained, by  handing  her  a  letter  which  required  an  immediate 
answer.  I  found  it  to  contain  a  request  from  Lord  Raglan's 
chief  of  the  staff  that  I  should  repair  at  once  to  the  Horse 
Guards.  As  may  be  imagined,  I  lost  no  time  in  obeying  the 
summons.  I  was  ushered  into  a  room  containin":  a  Ions 
table  covered  with  maps,  and  round  which  were  standing  sev- 
eral officers  of  rank,  among  whom  the  only  two  that  I  re- 
member wQre  Lord  de  Ros  and  Sir  John  Burgoyne.  The 
commander-in-chief  himself  was  not  present.  The  Crimea 
was  at  that  time  almost  a  terra  incognita  in  England,  and 
travellers  who  had  ever  been  actually  inside  the  forbidden 
precincts  of  Sebastopol  itself  were  rare. 

It  so  happened  that  we  had  spent  two  or  three  hours  with- 
in the  walls  of  that  celebrated  fortress,  and  I  was  now  sum- 
moned to  tell  the  chiefs  of  the  expedition  all  I  knew  about 
it.  Sir  John  Burgoyne  told  me  that  he  had  just  been  exam- 
ining a  Pole,  who  had  given  him  an  account  of  the  serious 
character  of  the  fortifications  on  the  land  side  which  did  not 
altogether  tally  with  other  information  he  had  received,  and 
he  begged  me  to  give  him  the  result  of  my  observations.  I 
assured  him  that  if  any  such  fortifications  on  the  land  side 
existed,  they  must  have  been  erected  since  my  visit.  We 
had  entered  the  town  from  Balaclava,  and  I  must  certainly 
have  remembered  passing  through  them.  I  was  therefore 
prepared  most  positively  to  assert  that,  in  October,  1852, 
there  was  no  more  impediment  to  an  army,  which  should  ef- 
fect a  landing  at  Balaclava,  from  marching  into  Sebastopol, 
than  there  would  be  for  an  army  to  march  into  Brighton 
from  the  downs  behind  it;  and  I  felt  sure  that  my  travelling 


MY    FIRST    EXPERIENCES    IN    DIPLOMACY.  35 

companion,  Mr.  Oswald  Smith,  would,  if  further  evidence 
were  required,  confirm  this  statement.  At  the  same  time,  I 
had,  without  any  pretension  to  a  knowledge  of  military  tac- 
tics, amused  myself,  as  soon  as  a  hostile  invasion  of  Russia 
was  determined  upon,  in  forming  quite  another  plan  of  cam- 
paign, which  consisted  in  a  combined  attack  upon  the  Isth- 
mus of  Perekop,  by  way  of  the  Gulf  of  Perekop  on  the  west 
and  the  Sea  of  Azof  on  the  east.  The  capture  of  the  small 
fort  there  would  have  cut  off  the  whole  of  the  Crimea,  to 
which  very  few  troops  had  yet  been  transported.  It  would 
have  been  impossible  for  Russia  to  reinforce  Sebastopol, 
either  by  sea  or  land,  and  the  fall  of  that  fortress,  provided 
that  the  Allies  could  have  maintained  their  position  at  Pere- 
kop, would  simply  have  been  a  question  of  time.  We  should 
have  stood  upon  the  defensive  against  Russia  at  a  position 
of  great  natural  strength,  instead  of  on  the  offensive  against 
her,  at  the  point  where,  as  it  afterwards  turned  out,  the  genius 
of  Todleben  made  her  impregnable  for  a  year. 

The  capture  of  Kertch  and  Theodosia  would  have  given 
us  command  of  the  resources  of  the  Crimea  ;  and  the  defeat 
of  the  garrison  of  Sebastopol,  had  it  ventured  out  to  attack 
us,  would  not  only  have  sealed  the  fate  of  that  garrison,  but 
would  have  given  us  the  whole  peninsula,  which  we  should 
have  held  as  a  permanent  guarantee  ;  and  then  if  Russia 
still  refused  to  come  to  terms,  we  should,  by  leaving  a  suffi- 
ciently strong  force  to  defend  Perekop,  have  been  free  to 
transfer  the  scene  of  our  operations  to  the  Caucasus  and  the 
provinces  beyond  it.  I  ventured,  after  giving  Sir  John  Bur- 
goyne  all  the  information  in  my  power  as  to  the  defences  of 
Sebastopol,  the  apparent  strength  of  its  garrison,  and  so 
forth,  to  point  to  Perekop  as  a  weak  spot ;  but,  of  course, 
could  only  do  this  with  the  greatest  diffidence.  So  far  as  I 
can  remember,  he  listened  without  making  any  remark;  at 
all  events,  I  soon  felt  so  much  impressed  with  a  sense  of  my 
own  presumption  in  volunteering  a  plan  of  campaign,  that  I 
confined  myself  to  a  mere  hint  of  it ;  but  I  have  often  won- 


36  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

dered,  if  the  whole  thing  had  to  be  done  over  again,  whether 
it  would  be  attempted  the  same  way  as  before. 

The  immediate  prospect  of  a  war  in  the  East  had  the  ef- 
fect of  utterly  unsettling  my  mind,  so  far  as  my  legal  studies 
were  concerned.  I  had  determined  in  my  first  enthusiasm 
to  come  to  the  Scotch  bar  as  well  as  the  English,  and  was  in- 
deed ultimately  called  to  both  ;  but  the  world  at  large  seemed 
such  a  much  bigger  oyster  to  open  than  my  neighbor's  pock- 
ets, that  I  never  even  went  to  the  expense  of  buying  a  wig 
and  gown,  while  the  absurdity  of  perpetually  paying  for  din- 
ners at  Lincoln's  Inn  that  I  never  ate, induced  me  at  last  to 
disbar  myself.  Meantime  I  was  extremely  anxious  to  take 
part  in  the  Crimean  campaign  in  some  capacity  or  other, 
and  should  have  accepted  an  offer  of  the  late  Mr.  Delane  to 
go  out  as  Twies  correspondent,  had  not  Lord  Clarendon 
kindly  held  out  hopes  that  he  would  send  me  out  when  an 
opportunity  offered.  It  was  while  anxiously  awaiting  this 
that  Lord  Elgin  proposed  that  I  should  accompany  him  to 
Washington  on  special  diplomatic  service  as  secretary,  and 
as  the  mission  seemed  likely  to  be  of  short  duration,  I  gladly 
accepted  the  offer,  in  the  hope  that  I  might  be  back  in  time 
to  find  employment  in  the  East  before  the  war  was  over. 

The  mission  to  which  I  was  now  attached  arose  out  of  the 
unsatisfactory  nature  of  the  commercial  relations  existing 
between  Canada  and  the  United  States,  and  the  futile  at- 
tempts, lasting  over  a  period  of  seven  years,  which  had  been 
from  time  to  time  made  to  put  them  upon  a  better  footing, 
and  which  finally  determined  the  English  government  to 
send  the  Earl  of  Elgin,  then  Governor-General  of  Canada,  to 
Washington,  with  instructions  to  negotiate  a  treaty  of  com- 
mercial reciprocity  between  the  two  countries.  Our  party, 
on  leaving  England,  consisted  only  of  Lord  Elgin  ;  Mr. 
Hincks,  then  Prime  -  Minister  of  Canada,  afterwards  Sir 
Francis  Hincks;  Captain  Hamilton,  A.  D.  C;  and  myself; 
but  at  New  York  we  were  joined  by  the  Hon.  Colonel  Bruce, 
and  one  or  two  Canadians,  whose  advice  and  assistance  in 
the  commercial  questions  to  be  treated  were  of  value. 


MY   FIRST   EXPERIENCES    IN    DIPLOMACY.  37 

We  happened  to  arrive  at  Washington  on  a  day  which,  as 
it  afterwards  turned  out,  was  pregnant  with  fate  to  the  desti- 
nies of  the  republic,  for  upon  the  same  night  the  celebrated 
Nebraska  Bill  was  carried  in  Congress,  the  effect  of  which 
was  to  open  an  extensive  territory  to  slavery,  and  to  intensi- 
fy the  burning  question  which  was  to  find  its  final  solution 
seven  years  later  in  a  bloody  civil  war. 

We  found  the  excitement  so  great  upon  our  arrival  in 
Washington  in  the  afternoon  that,  after  a  hurried  meal,  we 
went  to  the  Capitol  to  see  the  vote  taken.  1  shall  never 
forget  the  scene  presented  by  the  House.  The  galleries 
were  crammed  with  spectators,  largely  composed  of  ladies, 
and  the  vacant  spaces  on  the  floor  of  the  House  crowded 
with  visitors.  The  final  vote  was  taken  amid  great  enthusi- 
asm, a  hundred  guns  being  fired  in  celebration  of  an  event 
which,  to  those  endowed  with  foresight,  could  not  be  called 
auspicious.  I  remember  a  few  nights  afterwards  meeting  a 
certain  Senator  Toombs  at  a  large  dinner  given  by  one  of  the 
most  prominent  members  of  Congress — who  has  since  filled 
the  office  of  secretary  of  state — in  Lord  Elgin's  honor.  It 
was  a  grand  banquet,  at  which  all  the  guests  were  men,  with 
the  exception  ot  the  wife  of  our  host.  He  himself  belonged 
to  the  Republican,  or,  as  it  was  then  more  generally  called, 
the  Whig  party.  Notwithstanding  the  divergence  of  politi- 
cal opinion  among  many  of  those  present,  the  merits  of  the 
all-absorbing  measure,  and  its  probable  effects  upon  the  des- 
tinies of  the  nation,  were  being  discussed  freely.  Senator 
Toombs,  a  violent  Democrat,  was  a  large,  pompous  man,  with 
a  tendency,  not  uncommon  among  American  politicians,  to 
"  orate  "  rather  than  to  converse  in  society.  He  waited  for 
a  pause  in  the  discussion,  and  then,  addressing  Lord  Elgin 
in  stentorian  tones,  remarked,  apropos  of  the  engrossing  topic: 

"  Yes,  my  lord,  we  are  about  to  relume  the  torch  of  liberty 
upon  the  altar  of  slavery." 

Upon  which  our  hostess,  with  a  winning  smile,  and  in  the 
most  silvery  accents  imaginable,  said, 


38  EPISODES    IN    A    LIFE    OF   ADVENTURE. 

"  Oh,  I  am  so  glad  to  hear  you  say  that  again,  senator ; 
for  I  told  my  husband  you  had  made  use  of  exactly  the  same 
expression  to  me  yesterday,  and  he  said  you  would  not  have 
talked  such  nonsense  to  anybody  but  a  woman." 

The  shout  of  laughter  which  greeted  this  sally  abashed 
even  the  worthy  senator,  which  was  the  more  gratifying  to 
those  present  as  to  do  so  was  an  achievement  not  easily  ac- 
complished. 

When  the  war  broke  out,  Senator  Toombs  was  among  the 
fiercest  and  most  uncompromising  partisans  of  the  South. 
He  was  one  of  the  members  of  Jefferson  Davis's  cabinet, 
and  I  believe  only  succeeded  with  some  difficulty,  at  the  con- 
clusion of  hostilities,  in  making  his  escape  from  the  South. 
He  remained  to  the  last  a  prominent  political  figure,  and 
only  died  quite  recently. 

It  was  the  height  of  the  season  when  we  were  at  Washing- 
ton, and  our  arrival  imparted  a  new  impetus  to  the  festivi- 
ties, and  gave  rise  to  the  taunt,  after  the  treaty  was  conclud- 
ed, by  those  who  were  opposed  to  it,  that  "  it  had  been  float- 
ed through  on  champagne."  Without  altogether  admitting 
this,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that,  in  the  hands  of  a  skilful 
diplomatist,  that  beverage  is  not  without  its  value.  Looking 
through  an  old  journal,  I  find  the  following  specimen  entry  : 

'"May  26. —  Luncheon  at  2  p.m.  at  Senator  F.'s.  Sat 
between  a  Whig  and  a  Democratic  senator,  who  alternately 
poured  abolitionism  and  the  divine  origin  of  slavery  into 
the  ear  they  commanded.  I  am  getting  perfectly  stunned 
with  harangues  upon  political  questions  I  don't  understand, 
and  confused  with  the  nomenclature  appropriate  to  each. 
Besides  Whigs  and  Democrats,  there  are  Hard  Shells  and 
Soft  Shells,  and  Free-Soilers,  and  Disunionists,  and  Feder- 
als, to  say  nothing  of  filibusters,  pollywogs,  and  a  host  of 
other  nicknames.  One  of  my  neighbors,  discoursing  on  one 
of  these  varied  issues,  told  me  that  he  went  the  whole  hog. 
He  was  the  least  favorable  specimen  of  a  senator  I  have 
seen,  and  I  felt  inclined  to  tell  him  that  he  looked  the  animal 


MY    FIRST   EXPERIENCES    IN    DIPLOMACY.  39 

he  went,  but  smiled  appreciatively  instead.  There  were, 
however,  some  interesting  men  present  —  among  them  Col- 
onel Fremont,  a  spare,  wiry  man  with  a  keen  gray  "eye,  and  a 
face  expressing  great  determination,  but  most  sympathetic 
withal ;  and  a  senator  from  Washington  Territory,  which  in- 
volves a  journey  of  seventy  days  each  way  ;  and  another 
from  Florida,  who,  from  his  account  of  the  country,  repre- 
sents principally  alligators  ;  and  Colonel  Benton,  who  is 
writing  a  great  work,  and  is  '  quite  a  fine  man  ;'  and  the 
Governor  of  Wisconsin,  whose  state  has  increased  in  popu- 
lation in  ten  years  from  thirty  thousand  to  two  hundred 
thousand,  and  who  told  me  that  he  '  met  a  man  the  other 
day  who  had  travelled  over  the  whole  globe,  and  examined 
it  narrowly  with  an  eye  to  its  agricultural  capabilities,  and 
who  therefore  was  an  authority  not  to  be  disputed  ;  and  this 
man  had  positively  asserted  that  he  had  never  in  any  coun- 
try seen  fifty  square  miles  to  equal  that  extent  in  the  state 
of  Wisconsin — and  therefore  it  was  quite  clear  that  no  spot 
equal  to  it  was  to  be  found  in  creation.'  As  various  other 
patriots  have  informed  me  that  their  respective  states  are 
each  thus  singularly  favored,  I  am  beginning  to  feel  puzzled 
as  to  which  really  is  the  most  fertile  spot  on  the  face  of  the 
habitable  globe.  After  two  hours  and  a  half  of  this  style  of 
conversation,  abundantly  irrigated  with  champagne,  it  was  a 
relief  to  go  to  a  matinee  da7isante  at  the  French  minister's." 

Here  follow  remarks  upon  the  belles  of  that  period  at 
Washington,  which,  though  they  are  for  the  most  part  com- 
plimentary, are  not  to  the  purpose,  more  especially  as  they 
were  the  result  of  a  crude  and  youthful,  and  not  of  a  matured 
judgment. 

"Got  away  from  the  French  minister's  just  in  time  to 
dress  for  dinner  at  the  president's.  More  senators  and 
politics,  and  champagne,  and  Hard  Shells  and  Soft  Shells. 
I  much  prefer  the  marine  soft-shell  crab,  with  which  I  here 
made  acquaintance  for  the  first  time,  to  the  political  one. 
Then  with  a  select  party  of  senators,  all  of  whom  were  op- 


40  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

posed  in  principle  to  the  treaty,  to  Governor  A.'s,  where  we 
imbibed  more  champagne  and  swore  eternal  friendship, 
carefully  avoided  the  burning  question,  and  listened  to  sto- 
ries good,  bad,  and  indifferent,  till  2  A.  M.,  when,  after  twelve 
hours  of  incessant  entertainment,  we  went  home  to  bed 
thoroughly  exhausted." 

Meantime,  to  my  inexperienced  mind  no  progress  was  be- 
ing made  in  our  mission.  Lord  Elgin  had  announced  its  ob- 
ject on  his  arrival  to  the  president  and  the  secretary  of  state, 
and  had  been  informed  by  them  that  it  was  quite  hopeless  to 
think  that  any  such  treaty  as  he  proposed  could  be  carried 
through,  with  the  opposition  which  existed  to  it  on  the  part 
of  the  Democrats,  who  had  a  majority  in  the  Senate,  without 
the  ratification  of  which  body  no  treaty  could  be  conclud- 
ed. His  lordship  was  further  assured,  however,  that  if  he 
could  overcome  this  opposition,  he  would  find  no  difficul- 
ties on  the  part  of  the  government.  At  last,  after  several 
days  of  uninterrupted  festivity,  I  began  to  perceive  what  we 
were  driving  at.  To  make  quite  sure,  I  said  one  day  to  my 
chief, 

"  I  find  all  my  most  intimate  friends  are  Democratic  sena- 
tors." 

"  So  do  I,"  he  replied,  dryly ;  and,  indeed,  his  popularity 
among  them  at  the  end  of  a  week  had  become  unbounded  ; 
and  the  best  evidence  of  it  was  that  they  ceased  to  feel  any 
restraint  in  his  company,  and  often  exhibited  traits  of  West- 
ern manners  unhampered  by  conventional  trammels.  Lord 
Elgin's  faculty  of  brilliant  repartee  and  racy  anecdote  espe- 
cially delighted  them  ;  and  one  evening,  after  a  grand  dinner, 
he  was  persuaded  to  accompany  a  group  of  senators,  among 
whom  I  remember  Senator  Mason — afterwards  of  Mason 
and  Slidell  notoriety — and  Senator  Toombs  figured,  to  the 
house  of  a  popular  and  very  influential  politician,  there  to 
prolong  the  entertainment  into  the  small  hours.  Our  host, 
at  whose  door  we  knocked  at  midnight,  was  in  bed ;  but 
much  thundering  at  it  at  length  aroused  him,  and  he  himself 


MY    FIRST    EXPERIENCES    IN    DIPLOMACY.  41 

opened  to  us,  appearing  in   nothing  but  a  very  short  night- 
shirt. 

"  All  right,  boys,"  he  said,  at  once  divining  the  object  of  our 
visit;  "you  go  in,  and  I'll  go  down  and  get  the  drink  ;"  and 
without  stopping  to  array  himself  more  completely,  he  disap- 
peared into  the  nether  regions,  shortly  returning  with  his 
arms  filled  with  bottles  of  champagne,  on  the  top  of  which 
were  two  large  lumps  of  ice.  These  he  left  with  us  to  deal 
with,  while  he  retired  to  clothe  the  nether  portion  of  his  per- 
son. He  was  a  dear  old  gentleman,  somewhat  of  the  Lin- 
coln type,  and  had  the  merit  of  being  quite  sober,  which 
some  of  the  others  of  the  party  were  not,  and  though  thus 
roughly  roused  from  his  first  sleep,  expressed  himself  highly 
delighted  with  our  visit.  He  was,  moreover,  evidently  a  great 
character,  and  many  were  the  anecdotes  told  about  him  in 
his  own  presence,  all  bearing  testimony  to  his  goodness  of 
heart  and  readiness  of  wit.  At  last  one  of  the  party,  in  a  fit  of 
exuberant  enthusiasm  and  excessive  champagne,  burst  out, 

"  As  for  our  dear  old  friend  the  governor  here,  I  tell  you, 
Lord  E\gme  " — the  accent  was  frequently  laid  on  the  last 
syllable,  and  the  g  in  Elgin  pronounced  soft — "  he  is  a  per- 
fect king  in  his  own  countr)'.  There  ain't  a  man  in  Mussoo- 
rie  dar  say  a  word  against  him  ;  if  any  of  your  darned  Eng- 
glish  lords  was  to  go  down  there  and  dar  to,  he'd  tell 
them — "  here  followed  an  expression  which  propriety  com- 
pels me  to  omit,  and  which  completely  scandalized  our 
worthy  host. 

"That's  a  lie,"  he  said,  turning  on  his  guest,  but  without 
changing  his  voice,  as  he  slowly  rolled  his  quid  of  tobacco 
from  one  cheek  to  the  other.  "  I  can  blaspheme  and  pro- 
fane, and  rip,  and  snort  with  any  man  ;  but  I  never  make 
use  of  a  vulgar  expression." 

The  impoliteness  of  the  allusion  to  the  British  aristocracy, 
in  Lord  Elgin's  presence,  which  called  forth  this  strong  as- 
severation on  the  part  of  the  governor,  also  evoked  many 
profuse  apologies  from  some  of  the  others  present,  who  main- 


42  EPISODES   IN    A   LIFE    OF    ADVENTURE, 

tained  that,  if  all  English  lords  were  like  him,  and  would  be- 
come naturalized  Americans,  they  would  "run  the  country;" 
and  that,  so  far  as  he  was  individually  concerned,  it  was  a 
thousand  pities  he  had  not  been  born  an  American,  and 
thus  been  eligible  for  the  presidency.  Certainly  it  would 
not  have  been  difficult  to  be  more  eligible  for  that  high  of- 
fice than  the  respectable  gentleman  who  then  filled  it.  Of 
all  presidents,  I  suppose  none  were  more  insignificant  than 
Mr.  Pierce,  who  was  occupying  the  White  House  at  the  time 
of  our  visit ;  while  in  his  secretary  of  state,  Mr.  Marcy,  we 
found  a  genial  and  somewhat  comical  old  gentleman,  whose 
popularity  with  his  countrymen  seemed  chiefly  to  rest  on  the 
fact  that  he  had  charged  the  United  States  government 
fifty  cents  "for  repairing  his  breeches,"  when  sent  on  a  mis- 
sion to  inquire  into  certain  accounts  in  which  great  irregu- 
larities were  reported  to  have  taken  place. 

Thirty-two  years  have  doubtless  worked  a  great  change 
in  Washington  society,  as  indeed  it  has  upon  the  nation  gen- 
erally, and  more  especially  upon  the  Eastern  cities,  since  I 
first  knew  them.  Then,  Washington,  "  the  city  of  magnifi- 
cent distances,"  struck  me  as  a  howling  wilderness  of  de- 
serted streets  running  out  into  the  country,  and  ending  no- 
where, its  population  consisting  chiefiy  of  politicians  and 
negroes.  Now,  it  is  developing  rather  into  a  city  of  palaces, 
and  becoming  a  fashionable  centre  during  the  winter  for 
the  elite  of  society  from  all  parts  of  the  United  States,  Its 
population  is  growing  rapidly  under  the  new  impetus  thus 
received,  and  it  will  in  all  probability  ultimately  become  the 
handsomest  and  most  agreeable  place  of  residence  in  the 
country.  At  the  time  of  our  visit  Sir  Philip  Crampton  was 
British  minister  at  Washington,  and  under  his  hospitable 
roof  I  remember  meeting  Lincoln,  and  being  struck  by  his 
gaunt  figure  and  his  quaint  and  original  mode  of  expression, 

I  cannot  convey  a  better  idea  of  the  effect  produced  upon 
society  by  our  festive  proceedings  at  Washington  than  by 
quoting  the  following  extract  from  a  paper  at  the  time  de- 


MY    FIRST    EXPERIENCES    IN    DIPLOMACY.  43 

scribing  the  ball  given  by  Sir  Philip  Crampton  in  honor  of 
the  queen's  birthday : 

"As  for  the  ladies  present,  our  pen  fairly  falters  in  the  attempt  to  do 
justice  to  their  charms.  Our  artists  and  modistcs  had  racked  their 
brains,  and  exhausted  their  magazines  of  dainty  and  costly  fabrics,  in  or- 
der to  convince  the  world  in  general,  and  the  English  people  in  particu- 
lar, that  the  sovereign  fair  ones  of  Washington  regarded  their  sister  sov- 
ereign of  England  with  feelings,  not  only  of  '  the  most  distinguished 
consideration,'  but  of  downright  love,  admiration,  and  respect — lcn.'e,  for 
the  woman — adiitiration,  for  the  wife  of  the  handsomest  man  in  Europe 
— and  respect,  for  the  mother  of  nine  babies.  More  was  accomplished 
last  evening  in  the  way  of  negotiation  than  has  been  accomplished  from 
the  days  of  Ashburton  to  the  advent  of  Elgin.  We  regard  the  fishery 
question  as  settled,  both  parties  having  partaken  freely  of  the  bait  so 
liberally  provided  by  the  noble  host. 

"Amid  the  soft  footfalls  of  fairy  feet — the  glittering  of  jewels  —  the 
graceful  sweep  of  five-hundred-dollar  dresses — the  sparkling  of  eyes 
which  shot  forth  alternately  flashes  of  lightning  and  love — there  were 
two  gentlemen  who  appeared  to  be  the  '  observed  of  all  observers.'  One 
was  the  Earl  of  Elgin,  and  the  other  Sir  Charles  Gray.  Lord  Elgin  is  a 
short,  stout  gentleman,  on  the  shady  side  of  forty,  and  is  decidedly  John 
Bullish  in  walk,  talk,  appearance,  and  carriage.  His  face,  although 
round  and  full,  beams  with  intellect,  good  feeling,  and  good-humor.  His 
manners  are  open,  frank,  and  winning.  Sir  Charles  Gray  is  a  much  larger 
man  than  his  noble  countryman,  being  both  taller  and  stouter.  He  is 
about  sixty  years  of  age,  and  his  manners  are  particularly  grave  and  dig- 
nified. 

"  The  large  and  brilliant  company  broke  up  at  a  late  hour,  and  de- 
parted for  their  respective  homes — pleased  with  their  courtly  and  cour- 
teous host;  pleased  with  the  monarchical  form  of  government  in  Eng- 
land ;  pleased  with  the  republican  form  of  government  in  the  United 
States;  pleased  with  each  other,  themselves,  and  the  rest  of  mankind." 

At  last,  after  we  had  been  receiving  the  hospitalities  at 
Washington  for  about  ten  days,  Lord  Elgin  announced  to 
Mr.  Marcy  that,  if  the  government  were  prepared  to  adhere 
to  their  promise  to  conclude  a  treaty  of  reciprocity  with 
Canada,  he  could  assure  the  president  that  he  would  find  a 
majority  of  the  Senate  in  its  favor,  including  several  promi- 
nent Democrats.  Mr.  Marcy  could  scarcely  believe  his  ears, 
and  was  so  much  taken  aback  that  I  somewhat  doubted  the 


44  EPISODES    IN    A    LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

desire  to  make  the  treaty,  which  he  so  strongl}'  expressed  on 
the  occasion  of  Lord  Elgin's  first  interview  with  him,  when 
he  also  pronounced  it  hopeless.  However,  steps  had  been 
taken  which  made  it  impossible  for  him  to  doubt  that  the 
necessary  majority  had  been  secured,  and  nothing  remained 
for  us  but  to  go  into  the  details  of  the  tariff,  the  enumera- 
tion of  the  articles  of  commerce,  and  so  forth.  A  thorny 
question  was  intimately  associated  with  the  discussion  of 
this  treaty,  which  was  settled  by  it  for  the  time ;  and  this 
was  the  question  of  the  fisheries  off  the  coasts  of  British 
North  America,  claimed  by  American  fishermen.  The  vexed 
subject,  which  was  reopened  by  the  abrogation  of  the  treaty, 
has  recently  been  the  matter  of  protracted  negotiation  be- 
tween the  English  and  American  governments;  which,  how- 
ever, has  proved  so  imperfect  that  serious  disputes  are  daily 
arising,  which  it  will  require  all  the  tact  and  forbearance 
of  the  English  and  American  governments  to  arrange  ami- 
cably. 

For  the  next  three  days  I  was  as  busily  engaged  in  work 
as  I  had  been  for  the  previous  ten  at  play  ;  but  the  matter 
had  to  be  put  through  with  a  rush,  as  Lord  Elgin  was  due  at 
the  seat  of  his  government.  And,  perhaps,  under  the  cir- 
cumstances, we  succeeded  better  so  than  had  longer  time 
been  allowed  the  other  side  for  reflection.  As  it  was,  the 
worthy  old  secretary  of  state  was  completely  taken  by  sur- 
prise. I  will  venture  to  quote  the  description  I  wrote  at  the 
time  of  the  signing  of  the  treaty,  and  ask  the  reader  to  make 
allowance  for  the  style  of  mock  heroics,  and  attribute  it  to 
the  exuberance  of  youth : 

"  It  was  in  the  dead  of  night,  durmg  the  last  five  minutes 
of  the  5th  of  June,  and  the  first  five  minutes  of  the  6th  of  the 
month  aforesaid,  that  four  individuals  might  have  been  ob- 
served seated  in  a  spacious  chamber  lighted  by  six  wax 
candles  and  an  Argand  lamp.  Their  faces  were  expressive 
of  deep  and  earnest  thought,  not  unmixed  with  suspicion. 
Their  feelings,  however,  to  the  acute  observer,  manifested 


MY   FIRST    EXPERIENCES    IN    DIPLOMACY.  45 

themselves  in  different  ways  ;  but  this  was  natural,  as  two 
were  in  the  bloom  of  youth,  one  in  the  sear  and  yellow  leaf, 
and  one  in  the  prime  of  middle  age.  This  last  it  is  whose 
measured  tones  alone  break  the  silence  of  midnight,  except 
when  one  or  other  of  the  younger  auditors,  who  are  both  por- 
ing intently  over  voluminous  MSS.,  interrupts  him  to  inter- 
polate an  '  and  '  or  erase  a  '  the.'  They  are,  in  fact,  check- 
ing him  as  he  reads;  and  the  aged  man  listens,  while  he 
picks  his  teeth  with  a  pair  of  scissors,  or  cleans  out  the  wick 
of  a  candle  with  their  points,  which  he  afterwards  wipes  on 
his  gray  hair.  He  may  occasionally  be  observed  to  wink, 
either  from  conscious  'cuteness  or  unconscious  drowsiness. 
Presently  the  clock  strikes  twelve,  and  there  is  a  doubt 
whether  the  date  should  be  to-day  or  yesterday.  Tl:kcre  is  a 
moment  of  solemn  silence,  when  the  reader,  having  finished 
the  document,  lays  it  down,  and  takes  a  pen  which  had  been 
previously  impressively  dipped  in  the  ink  by  the  most  in- 
telligent-looking of  the  young  men,  who  appears  to  be  his 
'secretary,'  and  who  keeps  his  eye  warily  fixed  upon  the 
other  young  man,  who  occupies  the  same  relation  to  the 
aged  listener  with  the  scissors. 

"There  is  something  strangely  mysterious  and  suggestive 
in  the  scratching  of  that  midnight  pen,  for  it  may  be  scratch- 
ing fortunes  or  ruin  to  toiling  millions.  Then  the  venerable 
statesman  takes  up  the  pen  to  append  his  signature.  His 
hand  does  not  shake,  though  he  is  very  old,  and  knows  the 
abuse  that  is  in  store  for  him  from  members  of  Congress  and 
an  enlightened  press.  That  hand,  it  is  said,  is  not  all  unused 
to  a  revolver ;  and  it  does  not  now  waver,  though  the  word 
he  traces  may  be  an  involver  of  a  revolver  again.  He  is  now 
secretary  of  state  ;  before  that,  he  was  a  judge  of  the  Su- 
preme Court ;  before  that,  a  general  in  the  army  ;  before  that, 
governor  of  a  state  ;  before  that,  secretary  of  war ;  before 
that,  minister  in  Mexico  ;  before  that,  a  member  of  the  House 
of  Representatives ;  before  that,  a  politician  ;  before  that,  a 
cabinet-maker.     He  ends,  as  he  began,  with  cabinet  work  ; 


46  EPISODES    IN    A    LIFE    OF    ADVENTURE. 

and  he  is  not,  at  his  time  of  life  and  with  his  varied  experi- 
ences, afraid  either  of  the  wrath  of  his  countrymen  or  the  wiles 
of  an  English  lord.  So  he  gives  us  his  blessing  and  the  treaty 
duly  signed  ;  and  I  retire  to  dream  of  its  contents,  and  to 
listen  in  my  troubled  sleep  to  the  perpetually  recurring  refrain 
of  the  three  impressive  words  with  which  the  pregnant  docu- 
ment concludes — '  Unmanufactured  tobacco.     Rags  !'  " 

Thus  was  concluded  in  exactly  a  fortnight  a  treaty,  to 
negotiate  which  had  taxed  the  inventive  genius  of  the  Foreign 
Office  and  all  the  conventional  methods  of  diplomacy  for  the 
previous  seven  years,  and  which,  as  it  has  since  proved,  has 
been  of  enormous  commercial  advantage  to  the  two  countries 
to  which  it  was  to  be  applied.  A  reference  to  figures  will 
furnish  the  most  satisfactory  evidence  on  this  point. 

In  1853,  the  year  prior  to  our  mission  to  Washington,  the 
trade  of  Canada  with  the  United  States  amounted  to  $20,000,- 
000,  as  recently  given  from  correct  data,  by  the  Toronto  Mail. 
In  1854  the  treaty  commenced  to  operate,  and  the  volume 
of  trade  at  once  increased  to  $33,000,000.  In  1855,  it  was 
$42,000,000;  in  1857,  $46,000,000 ;  in  1859,  $48,000,000;  in 
1863,  $55,000,000  ;  in  1864,  $67,000,000  ;  in  1865,  $71, 000,- 
000  ;  and  in  1866,  the  year  the  treaty  was  abrogated  by  the 
action  of  the  American  government,  it  had  reached  the  high 
figure  of  $84,000,000.  It  had  thus  nearly  quadrupled  in  the 
course  of  twelve  years  under  the  action  of  the  treaty,  which 
the  Americans  erroneously  believed  to  be  so  much  more  to  the 
advantage  of  the  Canadians  than  ofthemselves,  that  they  seized 
the  earliest  available  opportunity,  after  the  term  fixed  for  its 
expiry,  to  abrogate  it — a  measure  dictated,  I  fear,  rather  by 
sentiments  of  jealousy  than  of  political  economy,  and  from 
which  the  States  suffer  certainly  as  much  if  not  more  than 
Canada,  whose  trade  with  the  mother  country  has  latterly 
undergone  considerable  development  in  consequence. 

The  brilliant  and  dashing  manner  in  which  Lord  Elgin 
achieved  this  remarkable  diplomatic  triumph,  apparently  cer- 
tain of  his  game  from  the  first,  playing  it  throughout  with 


MY    FIRST    EXPERIENCES    IN    DIPLOMACY.  47 

the  easy  confidence  of  assured  success,  made  a  profound  im- 
pression upon  me — an  impression  which  I  had  no  reason  to 
modify  throughout  a  subsequent  intimate  association  with 
him  of  three  years  in  two  hemispheres — during  which  he 
was  nearly  all  the  time  engaged  in  confronting  difficulties  and 
overcoming  obstacles  which  I  used  to  think  to  any  other 
man  would  have  seemed  insurmountable.  As  one  by  one 
they  melted  before  his  subtle  touch,  my  confidence  in  his  pro- 
found sagacity  and  his  undaunted  moral  courage  became  un- 
bounded ;  and  I  could  enter  into  the  feelings  of  soldiers, 
whose  general  never  led  them  to  anything  but  victory.  It 
was  both  a  pleasure  and  a  profit  to  serve  such  a  man  ;  a 
pleasure,  because  he  was  the  kindest  and  most  considerate  of 
chiefs — a  profit,  because  one  could  learn  so  much  by  watch- 
ing his  methods,  which  indeed  he  was  always  ready  to  dis- 
cuss and  explain  to  those  who  occupied  confidential  relations 
towards  him.  By  his  premature  death  the  country  lost  one 
of  its  most  conscientious  and  ablest  public  servants — one 
whose  services,  and  whose  great  capacity  for  rendering  them, 
have  never  received  their  just  recognition  at  the  hands  of  his 
countrymen. 

Our  progress  from  New  York  to  Canada  was  triumphal. 
On  our  arrival  by  a  special  train  at  Portland,  Maine,  we  were 
received  with  the  thunder  of  salutes,  and  went  in  procession 
to  the  house  of  one  of  the  leading  citizens,  with  bands  of 
music,  and  flags,  and  escorts,  mounted  and  on  foot,  the  whole 
of  the  gallant  militia  having  turned  out  to  do  Lord  Elgin 
honor.  A  characteristic  incident  occurred  prior  to  our  start- 
ing for  a  banquet  at  the  city  hall.  While  we  were  assembled 
in  the  drawing-room  of  our  host,  a  tray  with  various  kinds  of 
wines  and  spirits  was  brought  in,  and  our  hospitable  enter- 
tainer remarked, 

"You'll  have  to  take  your  liquor  in  here,  gentlemen  ;  for  I 
guess  you'll  get  none  where  we're  going  to.  We've  got  a 
liquor  law  in  Maine,  you  know,"  he  added,  with  a  sly  look  at 
the  tray. 


48  EPISODES    IN    A    LIFE    OF    ADVENTURE. 

Drinking  all  you  want  before  dinner  is  not  a  satisfactory 
way  of  "  taking  it  in."  However,  we  made  the  best  of  it,  and 
soon  found  ourselves  seated  at  a  table  plentifully  supplied 
with  tumblers  of  water,  at  which  were  two  hundred  guests. 
I  am  bound  to  say,  considering  the  absence  of  stimulants, 
there  was  no  lack  of  noise  and  merriment ;  and  when  dinner 
was  over,  speeches  followed  in  rapid  succession,  in  response 
to  toasts  and  sentiments.  Lord  Elgin  v^diS  facile  J>nnceps  in 
this  respect,  and  his  speeches  provoked  enthusiastic  applause. 
■He  brought  down  the  house  by  a  retort  upon  one  of  the  speak- 
ers whose  good  taste  was  not  equal  to  his  patriotism,  and  who 
took  the  opportunity  of  comparing  the  position  and  functions 
of  the  governor  of  a  state  with  those  of  the  Governor-General 
of  Canada,  much  to  the  disparagement  of  the  latter.  Allud- 
ing in  one  of  his  speeches  to  the  uncomplimentary  parallel 
thus  drawn,  Lord  Elgin  said  he  would  narrate  an  anecdote. 
In  the  course  of  his  travels  in  the  United  States  he  had  one 
day  found  himself  next  a  stage-driver,  with  whom  he  entered 
into  conversation  as  to  the  political  parties  in  the  States. 
The  driver  informed  him  that  the  majority  in  the  state  was 
Whig,  but  that  the  governor  of  it  was  a  Democrat. 

"  How  comes  that  about,  if  the  majority  are  Whigs  ?"  in- 
quired Lord  Elgin. 

"  Oh,"  replied  the  driver,  "  we  traded  the  governor  off 
against  the  land  agent." 

"  Now,  gentlemen,"  pursued  his  lordship,  amid  loud  laugh- 
ter, "you  could  not  trade  the  Governor-General  of  Canada 
off  against  any  land  agent." 

All  the  way  from  the  Canadian  frontier  to  Montreal  arches 
were  erected,  addresses  presented,  and  all  the  paraphernalia 
of  a  triumphal  progress  exhibited.  British  troops  lined  the 
streets  of  Montreal,  and  a  large  procession  here  attended  the 
party  to  the  hotel ;  we  did  not  linger,  however,  but  pushed  on 
without  delay  to  the  seat  of  government. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

POLITICS   AND    INDIAN   AFFAIRS    IN    CANADA. 

I  DO  not  remember  ever  having  been  more  vividly  im- 
pressed by  the  beauties  of  nature  than  on  that  lovely  spring 
morning  when,  in  order  to  avoid  any  more  demonstrations, 
we  landed  unostentatiously  from  the  steamer  in  which  we 
had  descended  the  St.  Lawrence,  at  the  foot  of  the  beautiful 
grounds  which  encircle  Spencerwood,  then  the  residence  of 
the  governor-general.  Although  it  was  the  nth  of  June, 
the  trees  were  still  in  their  spring  garb  of  tender  green ; 
there  was  a  delicious  stillness  in  the  air,  and  a  peculiar  clear- 
ness and  brilliancy  in  the  light  with  which  the  landscape  was 
flooded,  which  enhanced  its  own  rare  beauty;  and  as  I  now 
knew  that  I  was  to  be  a  dweller  here  for  some  months,  I  was 
enchanted  by  the  sort  of  fairy-land  that  was  to  be  my  future 
residence.  For  within  the  last  twenty-four  hours  a  new  pros- 
pect had  dawned  upon  me.  Although  our  Washington  treaty 
was  completed,  I  was  not,  as  I  had  originally  anticipated,  to 
return  at  once  to  England,  after  accompanying  Lord  Elgin  to 
Canada,  but  to  enter  upon  new  functions  for  which  I  was  al- 
together unprepared.  The  exigencies  of  the  service  com- 
pelled Lord  Elgin's  brother,  Colonel  Bruce,  who  had  hitherto 
filled  the  office  of  Civil  Secretary  of  Canada  and  Superin- 
tendent-General of  Indian  Affairs,  to  join  his  regiment  in  the 
Crimea,  and  I  was  appointed  to  succeed  him.  The  depart- 
ment of  Indian  Affairs  was  then  under  imperial  control.  It 
has,  since  confederation,  been  handed  over  to  the  Dominion. 

The  novelty  of  the  functions  I  was  now  called  upon  sud- 
denly to  assume  invested  my  new  position  with  great  inter- 
3 


50  EPISODES    IN    A    LIFE    OF   ADVENTURE. 

est.  I  soon  began  to  realize  this  by  the  style  of  the  corre- 
spondence which  poured  in  upon  me.  First  came  a  letter  to 
the  queen  from  an  Indian  tribe,  expressing  to  their  "Great 
Mother  across  the  Big  Lake  "  their  sympathy  with  the  war  in 
the  Crimea,  and  the  desire  of  the  warriors  to  participate  in 
it ;  and  another  addressed  to  myself,  in  which  the  "  red  skins  " 
write  to  their  "great  brother  who  lives  towards  the  sunrising, 
to  express  their  confidence  in  his  administrative  talents, 
which  alone  reconciles  them  to  the  loss  of  their  good  brother 
[Colonel  Bruce],  who  is  now  upon  the  war-path."  The  colo- 
nel's paternal  administration  had  rendered  him  very  popular. 
No  doubt  his  being  a  "  warrior  "  by  profession  was  also  a 
point  in  his  favor ;  and  I  feared  that  they  would  consider  me 
little  better  than  a  "  squaw,"  while  their  confidence  in  my  ad- 
ministrative talents  had  about  as  solid  a  basis  of  knowledge 
as  their  sympathy  with  the  objects  for  which  the  Crimean  war 
was  undertaken.  The  important  political  events  which  trans- 
pired immediately  on  our  arrival  at  Canada  obliged  me,  how- 
ever to  sujDpress  for  the  present  the  desire  which  began  to 
consume  me  to  make  a  closer  acquaintance  with  my  red 
brothers,  to  visit  the  industrial  schools  which  my  predecessor 
had  established,  and  to  smoke  the  "  calumet  of  peace  "  with 
them  in  their  wigwams. 

Lord  Elgin's  first  act  upon  arriving  at  Quebec  was  to  open 
Parliament  in  state.  The  number  of  British  troops  in  those 
days  quartered  in  Quebec  rendered  this  a  very  imposing  cere- 
mony, as  the  streets  were  lined  with  them.  The  striking 
feature  in  the  procession  was  the  state  carriage,  in  which  I 
accompanied  the  governor-general  to  the  House,  and  the 
panels  of  which  were  gaping  with  cracks  and  splits,  inflicted 
upon  them  by  the  mob  of  Montreal  on  the  occasion  when 
they  stoned  his  excellency  some  years  before,  and  burned 
down  the  Parliament  Houses.  The  carriage  had  never  been 
repaired  since  that  event,  in  order  that  it  might  serve  to  re- 
mind the  populace  of  the  measure  to  which  they  had  re- 
sorted in  order  to  give  vent  to  their  feelings.     Until  that 


POLITICS    AND    INDIAN    AFFAIRS    IN    CANADA.  5 1 

time  the  party  in  power  had  been  the  Tories,  or  loyalists, 
who  found  themselves  in  a  minority  on  the  occasion  of  the 
passing  of  the  Rebellion  Losses  Bill,  and  who  expressed  their 
indignation  on  being  turned  out  of  office  to  make  way  for  those 
who  commanded  the  parliamentary  majority,  by  these  acts  of 
violence.  They  had  been  out  of  office  for  about  six  years, 
during  which  time  the  leaders  of  the  party  had  resented  the 
constitutional  conduct  of  the  governor -general  so  keenly 
that  many  of  them  had  ever  since  refused  to  set  foot  in  Gov- 
ernment House,  and  even  neglected  to  salute  his  excellency 
in  the  street.  It  was  only  as  the  result  of  the  somewhat  ex- 
citing events  upon  which  we  were  now  entering  that  they 
finally  came  to  understand  that  Lord  Elgin  did  not  allow 
himself  to  be  influenced  by  personal  sympathies,  and  was  de- 
termined to  give  effect  to  a  parliamentary  majority,  of  whom- 
soever it  might  be  composed.  After  several  days'  debate  the 
government  was  beaten  on  an  amendment  to  the  address, 
and  ministers  determined  to  go  to  the  countr}'.  Lord  Elgin 
came  down  a  week  after  he  had  opened  the  House  to  prorogue 
it,  when  a  somewhat  exciting  episode  occurred.  When  the 
Commons  were  sent  for,  they  refused  to  come.  The  pause 
was  in  the  highest  degree  embarrassing.  The  Legislative 
Chamber,  filled  with  an  audience  en  grande  temie — Lord  Elgin 
seated  on  the  throne — a  silence,  broken  only  by  a  whisper- 
ing and  tittering,  which  did  not  add  to  the  dignity  of  the  sit- 
uation— all  contributed  to  form  a  unique  political  situation. 
At  last,  after  the  lapse  of  nearly  half  an  hour,  the  Speaker  of 
the  Lower  House,  who  had  been  engaged  drawing  up  a  pro- 
test against  the  course  which  was  being  adopted,  appeared, 
supported  by  a  large  body  of  members,  and  read  it — a  pro- 
ceeding which  the  governor-general  promptly  met  by  de- 
claring the  House  dissolved ;  and  for  the  next  few  days  a 
state  of  feverish  excitement  pervaded  political  circles,  the 
opposition  declaring  the  whole  course  of  proceeding  to  be  un- 
constitutional, and  the  local  opposition  press  teeming  with 
abusive  articles  denouncing  a  tyranny  which  had  deprived 
them  of  their  liberties. 


52  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE    OF   ADVENTURE. 

Altogether  the  month  had  been  in  the  highest  degree  ex- 
citing and  eventful ;  for  in  the  short  space  of  four  weeks 
Lord  Elgin  had  negotiated  and  signed  a  treaty  with  the 
American  government,  made  a  triumphal  progress  from 
Boston  to  Quebec,  opened  the  Canadian  Parliament,  pro- 
rogued and  dissolved  it.  But  though  the  difficulty  had  been 
overcome,  so  far  as  any  opposition  to  the  treaty  at  Washing- 
ton was  concerned,  it  had  still  to  receive  the  assent  of  all  the 
colonial  legislatures.  In  Nova  Scotia  especially  it  was  un- 
popular, owing  to  the  fishery  clauses,  and  it  required  the 
exercise  of  all  the  authority  and  tact  of  the  governor-general 
to  force  the  adoption  of  a  measure  to  which,  as  it  afterwards 
turned  out,  that  colony  owed  a  greater  degree  of  prosperity 
than  it  has  ever  enjoyed  before  or  since.  In  1869,  or  four 
years  after  the  Reciprocity  Treaty  of  1854  was  abrogated, 
the  Halifax  remarks : 

"  From  the  making  of  the  Reciprocity  Treaty  until  its  abrogation,  Nova 
Scotia  increased  in  wealth  and  population  at  a  most  extraordinary  rate. 
From  its  abrogation  until  the  present,  we  have  retrograded  with  the  most 
frightful  rapidity.  Want  of  a  good  market  has  depreciated  the  value  of 
our  coal-mines — has  nearly  pauperized  our  fishermen,  farmers,  and 
miners ;  and  should  this  want  not  be  supplied  in  the  only  way  it  can  be, 
by  a  new  treaty  with  the  United  States,  Nova  Scotia  will  in  five  years  be 
one  of  the  least  desirable  countries  to  live  m  on  this  continent." 

This  quotation  affords  an  interesting  illustration  of  the  in- 
competence of  the  popular  judgment  to  arrive  at  accurate 
conclusions  in  matters  affecting  the  public  interests ;  for  I 
can  bear  personal  testimony  to  the  furious  opposition  which 
the  treaty  encountered  from  all  classes  in  the  province,  from 
the  lieutenant-governor  downwards,  at  the  time  it  was  pro- 
posed, and  of  the  conviction  generally  entertained  that  it 
would  prove  the  ruin  of  the  colony.  Under  these  circum- 
stances the  final  result  was  satisfactory  beyond  our  most 
sanguine  expectations,  as  may  be  gathered  from  the  fact 
that  the  treaty  ultimately  passed  through  the  Congress  of 
the  United  States,  and  through  the  colonial  legislatures  of 


POLITICS    AND    INDIAN   AFFAIRS    IN   CANADA.  53 

Canada,  New  Brunswick.  Nova  Scotia,  Prince  Edward  Island, 
and  Newfoundland,  with  a  total  of  only  twenty-one  dissenti- 
ent votes.  Had  Canada  then  been  confederated,  as  it  was 
fourteen  years  later,  the  task  would  have  been  much  easier. 
Unfortunately  the  reaction  predicted  in  the  Nova  Scotia 
newspaper  has  occurred  in  that  province,  and  the  decline  in 
its  prosperity  is  attributed  to  confederation.  It  is  really  due 
to  the  unsatisfactory  state  of  our  relations  with  the  United 
States  on  the  subject  of  the  fisheries ;  and  if  those  were 
placed  upon  a  sound  footing,  the  outcry  against  confedera- 
tion which  has  recently  been  raised  in  Nova  Scotia  would 
soon  die  away.  What  is  needed  in  Canada  is  an  imperial 
officer,  who  might  still  be  called  civil  secretary,  and  be  at- 
tached to  the  governor-general's  staff,  and  whose  functions 
should  be  partly  political  and  partly  diplomatic.  At  present, 
when  delicate  questions  arise  between  the  confederated  prov- 
inces, involving  a  special  mission  and  local  treatment,  the 
settlement  has  necessarily  to  be  intrusted  to  an  agent  ap- 
pointed by  the  Dominion  government  —  which  means  an 
agent  of  the  political  party  then  in  power ;  and  whatever  ar- 
rangement he  may  make  is  certain  to  be  objected  to  by  the 
opposition. 

This  consequence  of  party  government  is  unfortunately 
not  confined  to  Canada,  and  receives  daily  lamentable  illus- 
trations in  our  own  political  performances  at  home.  So,  in 
questions  arising  between  Canada  and  the  United  States, 
our  minister  at  Washington  is  necessarily  guided  by  the  in- 
formation and  advice  of  the  Canadian  politicians  sent  to  as- 
sist him.  And  as  whatever  they  do  must  be  wrong,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  other  side,  the  result  is  sure  to  be  severely 
and  unfairly  criticised.  Whereas,  if  negotiations  of  this  char- 
acter, whether  as  between  the  provinces  or  with  the  United 
States  government,  were  intrusted  to  an  imperial  officer 
thoroughly  conversant  with  the  questions  at  issue,  outside  of 
all  local  politics,  and  who  could  not  be  suspected  of  being 
influenced  by  them,  they  would  meet  with  far  less  opposition 


54 


EPISODES   IN   A    LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 


on  the  part  of  local  politicians,  and  be  arranged  on  a  broader 
and  more  satisfactory  basis.  Had  such  an  officer  existed, 
it  is  probable  that  neither  the  British  Columbia  nor  the  North- 
west questions  would  have  assumed  the  proportions  they  did; 
that  Newfoundland  would  ere  this  have  been  included  in 
the  confederation ;  that  the  discontent  now  existing  in  Nova 
Scotia  might  have  been  appeased;  and  that  the  fishery  and 
other  questions  which  are  still  outstanding  with  the  United 
States  would  have  obtained  a  satisfactory  solution,  I  re- 
ceived assurances  from  leading  members  of  the  Dominion 
government  only  a  few  years  ago,  that  so  far  from  being  op- 
posed to  the  idea  of  availing  themselves  of  the  good  offices 
of  an  imperial  functionary  of  this  kind,  they  would  even  be 
prepared  to  contribute  to  his  salary,  which  could  be  added 
to  from  funds  drawn  from  the  Foreign  and  Colonial  Offices 
at  home.  The  amount  required  would  be  very  small,  and 
would  simply  constitute  an  increase  on  the  present  salary 
of  the  governor's  secretary,  whose  position  would  naturally 
qualify  him  for  the  exercise  of  these  functions.  In  these 
days,  when  the  idea  of  imperial  federation  has  assumed  such 
prominence,  such  appointments,  calculated  rather  to  soothe 
than  to  wound  sensibilities,  would  form  additional  traits 
d''union  between  the  mother  country  and  her  dependencies. 

The  excitement  into  which  the  whole  country  was  thrown 
by  a  ministerial  defeat,  and  a  general  election  so  unexpected, 
created  a  social  and  political  lull  in  Quebec  itself,  which  I 
was  thankful  to  avail  myself  of,  in  order  to  pay  a  round  of 
visits  to  my  "red  children."  This  duty  was  eminently  to  my 
taste ;  it  involved  diving  into  the  depths  of  the  backwoods, 
bark-canoeing  on  distant  and  silent  lakes  or  down  foaming 
rivers,  where  the  fishing  was  splendid,  the  scenery  most  ro- 
mantic, and  camp-life  at  this  season  of  the  year— for  it  was  now 
the  height  of  summer — most  enjoyable.  It  was  a  prolonged 
picnic,  with  just  enough  duty  thrown  in  to  deprive  it  of  any 
character  of  selfishness.  There  were  schools  to  inspect, 
councils  to  be  held,  tribal  disputes  Xo  be  adjusted,  presents 


POLITICS   AND   INDIAN   AFFAIRS    IN   CANADA.  55 

to  be  distributed,  and,  in  one  case,  a  treaty  to  be  made.  At 
nearly  all  the  stations  there  was  a  school  or  mission-house 
of  some  kind,  and  here  the  meeting  of  the  "warriors"  and 
the  "young  braves  "  with  their  "  father"  took  place  ;  and  as 
I  had  barely  attained  the  age  of  five-and-twenty  when  these 
paternal  responsibilities  were  thrust  upon  me,  the  incongruity 
of  my  relation  towards  them,  I  am  afraid,  presented  itself 
somewhat  forcibly  to  the  minds  of  the  veterans  on  these  oc- 
casions. It  was  a  novel  and  exhilarating  experience  to  paddle 
up  in  a  sort  of  rude  state  at  the  head  of  a  train  of  canoes, 
and  to  be  received  by  volleys  from  rifles  and  fowling-pieces 
by  way  of  a  salute  from  all  the  members  of  the  tribe  collected 
on  the  margin  of  the  lake  or  river,  as  the  case  might  be,  to 
receive  me.  Then  they  would  form  in  line  and  file  past  me, 
every  man,  woman,  and  child  shaking  hands  as  they  did  so, 
and  in  solemn  procession  escort  me  up  to  the  place  of  meet- 
ing— when,  if  it  was  a  chapel,  I  mounted  into  the  pulpit,  and 
solemnly  lighting  a  pipe,  waited  till  my  audience  were  all 
seated  on  their  heels  and  had  lighted  theirs,  before  entering 
upon  the  business  of  the  hour.  This  generally  terminated 
in  a  lecture  upon  temperance  and  industry  ;  for  their  love 
of  spirituous  liquors  and  their  inveterate  indolence  are  the 
curse  of  these  poor  people,  and  render  them  an  easy  prey  to 
the  more  unscrupulous  class  of  white  settlers,  who  system- 
atically carry  on  a  process  of  demoralization,  with  the  view  to 
their  extermination,  a  result  which  is  being  rapidly  achieved. 
I  do  not  know  whether  my  efforts  to  convince  them  that  they 
were  themselves  their  own  worst  enemies  procured  for  me 
the  name  of  Pah  Dah  Sung,  or  "  The  Coming  Sun  "—possibly 
from  the  light  I  was  expected  to  throw  upon  the  subject. 

My  two  most  interesting  experiences  in  connection  with 
my  brief  administration  of  Indian  affairs  in  Canada  were  the 
distribution  of  annual  presents  upon  the  island  of  Manitoulin, 
and  a  treaty  which  I  succeeded  in  negotiating  with  a  tribe 
which  owned  an  extensive  tract  of  territory  upon  the  shores 
of  Lake  Huron.     Manitoulin,  which  is  over  a  hundred  miles 


56  EPISODES    IN    A    LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

in  length,  is  said  to  be  the  largest  fresh-water  island  in  the 
world,  and  was  destined  by  a  former  Governor-General  of 
Canada — Sir  Francis  Bond  Head — as  an  eligible  territory  on 
which  to  make  the  experiment  of  collecting  Indians,  with  a 
view  to  their  permanent  settlement  and  civilization.  It  has 
not  succeeded,  however,  and  at  the  time  of  my  visit  was  the 
rendezvous  of  thousands  of  Indians  belonging  to  many  dif- 
ferent tribes,  who,  with  their  whole  families,  congregated 
here  to  receive  blankets,  agricultural  implements,  and  other 
presents  which  it  was  hoped  would  conduce  to  their  welfare. 
These,  correctly  speaking,  were  not  presents,  as  they  were 
purchased  from  funds  in  the  hands  of  the  Indian  Department, 
whose  principal  function  it  was  to  invest  the  large  sums  of 
money  which  had  accrued  to  the  Indians  from  the  sale  of 
their  land  to  white  settlers,  and  to  apply  the  interest  to  their 
advantage.  The  collection  of  birch-bark  wigwams  \x;hich 
surrounded  the  little  harbor  where  I  landed  looked  like  a 
huge  camp,  and  in  these  were  huddled  a  swarm  of  dirty  oc- 
cupants, some  of  them  having  travelled  hither  from  a  great 
distance,  miserably  clad  in  frowsy  blankets  and  skins.  Here 
and  there  were  fine-looking,  picturesque  figures,  more  gaudily 
decorated  with  paints  and  feathers ;  but,  taking  them  as  a 
whole,  I  know  of  no  nomads — and  I  have  seen  Calmuck 
Tartars,  Kirghiez,  Bedouins,  and  gypsies — who  present  a 
more  poverty-stricken  and  degraded  appearance  than  did  the 
majority  of  my  red  children  !  I  was  the  more  disappointed 
with  them  in  their  savage  state,  because  I  expected  an  im- 
provement upon  their  semi-civilized  brethren,  with  whom  I 
had  hitherto  come  in  contact.  I  believe  the  annual  congre- 
gation of  Indians  on  this  island,  and  distribution  of  presents 
among  them,  has  been  discontinued  by  the  Dominion  gov- 
ernment. 

The  occupation  by  the  Indians  of  large  tracts  of  country 
eligible  for  settlement  by  whites,  which  they  reserve  as  hunt- 
ing-grounds, from  which  they  got  nothing  but  a  few  foxes  and 
muskrats,  was  a  fruitful  source  of  trouble  to  the  department, 


POLITICS   AND    INDIAN    AFFAIRS    IN    CANADA.  57 

as  settlers  were  constantly  unlawfully  squatting  upon  them, 
who  had  to  be  driven  off.  The  largest  and  only  remaining 
one  of  these  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  a  thickly  settled 
district  was  called  the  Sangeen  Peninsula,  a  promontory  e.x- 
tending  into  Lake  Huron,  and  containing  about  half  a  mill- 
ion of  acres  of  fine  land.  I  determined  to  try  and  induce 
the  tribe  to  which  this  extensive  tract  belonged,  and  who 
practically  derived  no  revenue  from  it,  to  make  a  cession  of 
it  to  the  government  for  the  purpose  of  having  it  sold  in  lots 
to  white  settlers,  the  whole  of  the  proceeds  to  belong  to  the 
tribe,  which  would  thus  become  one  of  the  wealthiest  in  the 
country.  In  order  to  do  this,  it  was  necessary  to  undertake 
an  expedition  to  a  remote,  and,  in  those  days,  very  inacces- 
sible spot.  My  journey  involved  sundry  adventures  by  flood 
and  fell,  for  I  was  nearly  wrecked  in  a  small  boat  coasting 
along  the  shore  of  Lake  Huron,  and  lost  in  a  swamp  while 
endeavoring  to  follow  the  Indian  trail  through  the  forest, 
where  sometimes  we  only  had  the  "blaze  " — or  places  where 
the  trees  had  been  scored  with  an  axe — to  guide  us. 

On  my  arrival  at  my  destination,  I  found  all  the  males  of 
the  tribe  collected  in  a  chapel  where  a  native  catechist  acted 
as  interpreter,  the  tribe  being  a  branch  of  the  Chippeways. 
In  order  not  to  lose  time,  the  meeting  was  convened  for 
7  P.M.,  on  the  evening  of  my  arrival.  As  usual  I  opened  the 
proceedings  with  a  pipe  and  a  speech  from  the  pulpit,  the 
twelve  elders  of  the  tribe  sitting  immediately  below  me  on 
the  ground,  each  with  his  pipe,  and  forming  the  front  row  of 
a  crowd  of  squatting  men,  all  smoking.  My  address  was 
frequently  interrupted  by  what  Fenimore  Cooper  calls  "ex- 
pressive ughs  ;"  and  the  grunts  and  murmurs  of  the  audience, 
expressive  of  their  disagreement  with  my  proposal,  were  not 
enc(5uraging.  A  pause  of  at  least  ten  minutes  ensued  after 
I  had  finished,  during  which  they  all  smoked  vigorously. 
Then  their  principal  chief  rose,  and  in  an  energetic  speech 
set  forth  his  objections,  which  were  received  with  grunts  of 
approval  by  the  majority.  Then  another  chief  rose,  who 
3* 


58  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

seemed  to  be  a  man  of  some  weight,  and  delivered  himself 
forcibly  in  the  opposite  sense.  In  the  course  of  his  remarks 
he  made  some  observations  apparently  of  a  character  un- 
complimentary to  the  previous  speaker,  for  a  fierce  wrangle 
ensued,  in  which  many  took  part,  and  in  which,  when  I  came 
to  understand  it,  I  occasionally  joined,  adding,  by  the  advice 
of  the  catechist,  fuel  to  the  fire.  When  the  atmosphere  had 
become  sufficiently  stormy — it  was  already  so  smoky  that  I 
could  not  see  across  the  room,  but  perhaps  that  was  partly 
owing  to  its  being  illuminated  only  by  a  couple  of  tallow-dips 
— I,  again  by  the  advice  of  my  interpreter,  retired,  "  to  let 
them  fight  it  out,"  which,  as  he  afterwards  assured  me,  they 
did  literally  with  their  fists.  As  he  believed  himself  to  be 
pecuniarily  interested,  he  remained  to  take  part  in  the  7nelee 
— a  course  of  proceeding  which  I  left  him  to  reconcile  with 
his  own  conscience  as  a  religious  teacher.  I  reconciled  it  to 
mine  by  the  fact  that  my  efforts  were  being  directed  entirely 
in  the  interests  of  the  Indians  themselves,  which  they  were 
too  stupid  to  understand. 

It  was  past  midnight  when  the  catechist  summoned  me 
from  the  little  outhouse  in  which  I  had  been  waiting,  with 
the  welcome  intelligence  that  all  the  difficulties  had  been 
overcome,  and  that  the  chiefs  expressed  themselves  ready  to 
consent  to  the  proposed  arrangement.  It  seemed  to  be  my 
fate,  while  in  America,  to  assist  at  the  signing  of  midnight 
treaties ;  but  on  this  occasion  the  scene  was  infinitely  more 
novel  and  picturesque  than  on  the  previous  one.  Round  a 
table  below  the  pulpit,  which  was  covered  with  papers  and 
maps,  crowded  a  wild-looking  group  of  Indians,  in  blankets 
and  leggings  and  moccasons,  with  their  bare  arms  and  long, 
straight,  black  hair.  Twelve  of  these  placed  their  totems  op- 
posite my  signature,  each  totem  consisting  of  the  rude  repre- 
sentation of  a  bear,  a  deer,  an  otter,  a  rat,  or  some  other  wild 
animal. 

It  was  one  o'clock  in  the  morning  before  I  set  out  with  a 
light  heart,  for  I  had  the  treaty  in  my  pocket,  on  a  two-mile 


POLITICS    AND    INDIAN   AFFAIRS    IN   CANADA.  59 

tramp  through  the  forest  in  pitchy  darkness  to  the  rude  tavern 
at  Southampton,  then  the  extreme  outpost  of  civilization, 
which  did  duty  for  a  lodging ;  but  it  was  not  to  find  rest. 
The  Indians  all  followed  me  ;  and  my  host,  in  anticipation 
of  my  triumphant  return,  had  exhausted  the  resources  of  the 
place  in  preparing  a  grand  meal  for  me,  to  which  we — Indians 
and  all,  with  a  sprinkling  of  whites  attracted  by  the  excite- 
ment of  the  event — sat  down  at  4  a.m.  The  Indians,  so  lately 
at  loggerheads,  now  became  reconciled  over  copious  libations 
of  whiskey,  under  the  influence  of  which  there  was  a  general 
fraternization  with  the  whites  as  well,  who  were  in  high  spirits 
at  the  prospect  of  so  much  new  territory  being  opened  up  to 
settlement,  and  who  offered  to  give  me  a  banquet  if  I  would 
only  prolong  my  stay  a  day ;  but  on  my  declining  this,  the 
whole  crowd,  red  and  white,  when  day  broke,  accompanied 
nie  to  the  river,  and  gave  me  three  cheers  as  I  ferried  across 
it  on  my  return  journey. 

By  means  of  the  revenue  derived  from  this  cession  of  In- 
dian territory  I  was  enabled  to  reorganize  the  whole  finan- 
cial system  of  the  Indian  Department,  and  to  effect  a  clear 
saving  to  the  imperial  exchequer  of  ;^i3,ooo  a  year — an 
economy  with  which  Lord  Taunton,  then  colonial  minister, 
expressed  himself  so  well  satisfied  that  he  was  kind  enough 
to  offer  me  a  small  lieutenant-governorship  in  the  West  In- 
dies, which  I  should  have  gratefully  accepted  had  it  not  been 
for  my  preference  for  diplomatic  work,  and  desire  to  go  to 
the  seat  of  war  in  the  Crimea. 

The  most  distant  Indian  settlement  I  visited  was  in  the 
immediate  neighborhood  of  Lake  Superior.  Finding  myself 
so  far  west,  I  determined  to  return  by  a  very  roundabout  way, 
for  the  purpose  of  seeing  some  of  the  country  to  the  west  of 
the  lake.  My  companions  were  Lord  Bury,  who  had  been 
for  some  time  previously  Lord  Elgin's  guest  at  Quebec,  and 
Messrs.  Petre  and  Clifford,  whom  we  met  on  Lake  Superior, 
and  with  whom  we  made  a  bark-canoe  voyage  from  the  western 
end  of  the  lake  to  the  head-waters  of  the  Mississippi,  coming 


6o  EPISODES    IN    A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

down  that  river  to  Dubuque,  from  which  place  we  crossed 
the  prairies  of  lUinois  to  Chicago,  then  a  rising  young  city 
of  seventy-five  thousand  inhabitants,  and  so  by  way  of  Niagara 
back  to  Quebec — a  trip  which  afforded  me  material  for  a 
book  at  the  time,^  and  which  is  interesting  now  to  look  back 
upon  as  furnishing  the  recollection  of  a  country  in  which  the 
Indian  and  the  buffalo  still  roamed,  where  the  scream  of  the 
locomotive  was  then  unheard,  and  where  not  an  acre  of  land 
was  taken  up  by  a  white  settler.  It  is  now  a  thickly  peopled 
region,  from  which  Indians  and  buffaloes  have  alike  retired, 
and  where  the  traveller,  instead  of  poling  up  a  river  in  a  bark- 
canoe,  can  fly  across  the  country  by  train,  and  look  forward 
at  night  to  a  comfortable  hotel,  instead  of  the  turf  for  a  bed, 
and  a  lean-to  of  pine-branches  for  a  shelter. 

In  view  of  the  future  which  I  saw  for  the  country,  I  bought 
a  town  lot  at  the  city  of  Superior,  which  then  consisted  of 
one  log-shanty  and  a  tent,  and  to  find  which  I  had  to  wade 
up  to  my  knees  in  water,  and  cut  my  way  to  it  with  a  billhook. 
The  city  of  Superior  rose  at  one  time  to  contain  about  twelve 
hundred  inhabitants ;  then  was  victimized  by  a  political  in- 
trigue, and,  to  use  the  expressive  phrase  of  a  citizen,  "bust 
up  flat,"  so  that  the  cottage  which  I  had  built  upon  my  lot, 
and  which,  had  I  been  wise  enough  to  sell  it  at  one  moment, 
would  have  realized  a  handsome  profit,  became  worthless, 
and  I  had  to  sell  the  doors  and  windows  to  pay  the  taxes, 
for  the  place  was  deserted.  Five  years  ago  a  slow  upward 
movement  commenced,  and  I  accepted  an  offer  which  exactly 
covered  the  money  expended  upon  it  during  the  previous 
five-and-twenty  years.  Since  then  I  believe  it  has  come  un- 
der the  influence  of  what  is  called  "a  boom,"  and  tl>e  pur- 
chaser is  in  possession  of  a  property  which  will  yield  him  a 
large  return.  Such  are  the  ups  and  downs  of  western  towns, 
and  of  people  who  speculate  in  them. 

The  Canadian  elections  had  been  completed  during  my 

*  "  Minnesota  and  the  Far  West."     By  Laurence  Oliphant.     William 
Blackwood  &  Sons:  1855. 


POLITICS   AND    INDIAN    AFFAIRS    IN    CANADA.  6l 

absence  from  Quebec,  and  Lord  Elgin  opened  the  new  Par- 
liament a  few  days  after  my  return.  I  found  that  I  arrived 
just  in  time  for  another  political  crisis,  as  the  elections  had 
resulted  unfavorably  for  the  government.  The  two  great 
questions  which  it  was  Lord  Elgin's  great  ambition  to  settle 
before  closing  his  term  of  office  were  the  abolition  of  Seig- 
neurial  Tenure  and  the  Secularization  of  the  Clergy  Reserves, 
which,  in  his  speech  from  the  throne,  he  recommended  to 
the  attention  of  the  House.  To  the  settlement  of  both 
these  questions  in  the  popular  sense,  the  opposition,  or  Tory 
party,  had  been  vigorously  opposed.  When,  therefore,  the 
government  was  beaten  on  the  election  of  the  speaker,  the 
fate  of  these  measures  seemed  somewhat  critical.  I  was 
fortunately  situated  for  watching  the  progress  of  the  parlia- 
mentary proceedings,  and  the  crisis  resulting  therefrom.  By 
virtue  of  my  office,  I  had  a  seat  on  the  floor  of  the  House, 
without,  however,  the  right  of  voting  or  of  speaking,  except 
to  offer  explanations  in  the  event  of  any  question  affecting 
the  Indians  coming  up.  I  was  thus  present  at  all  the  de- 
bates, and  on  excellent  terms  with  the  leaders  of  both  parlia- 
mentary parties.  In  fact  I  had  practically  all  the  fun  of  be- 
ing a  member  of  the  House  without  any  of  the  responsibili- 
ties, and  after  the  vote  on  the  speaker  was  taken,  had  sun- 
dry confidential  meetings  in  the  small  hours  of  the  morning 
with  the  prominent  men  on  both  sides,  the  result  of  which 
was  that  I  could  not  resist,  in  my  excitement,  waking  the 
governor-general  up  at  5  a.m.  to  inform  him  of  the  defeat 
of  the  government,  and  what  I  had  learned  since.  The  day 
following  the  prime -minister  placed  his  resignation  in  his 
excellency's  hands  3  and  to  the  great  astonishment  of  the 
public,  as  well  as  to  his  own.  Sir  Allan  M'Nab,  who  had  been 
one  of  his  bitterest  opponents  ev.er  since  the  Montreal  events, 
was  sent  for  to  form  a  ministry — Lord  Elgin  by  this  act  sat- 
isfactorily disproving  the  charge  of  having  either  personal  or 
political  partialities  in  the  selection  of  his  ministers.  After 
some  little  delay.  Sir  Allan  succeeded  in  forming  a  coalition 


62  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE, 

ministry,  which  adopted  the  address  of  their  predecessors  in 
toto,  and  thus  committed  themselves  to  passing  the  two  im- 
portant measures  alluded  to  in  it,  in  exactly  the  same  sense 
as  their  opponents  intended  to  do  —  a  sense  which  they 
had  always  resisted.  Meantime  the  Reciprocity  Treaty  also 
passed  unanimously,  and  the  governor-general  went  down  in 
state  to  give  it  the  royal  assent. 

We  immediately  afterwards  started  on  a  tour  through  Up- 
per Canada,  which  was  a  triumphal  progress  throughout — 
the  people,  many  of  whom  until  lately  had  been  his  excel- 
lency's bitterest  opponents,  turning  out  en  masse  to  do  him 
honor ;  while  at  sundry  banquets,  and  on  other  numerous 
occasions  when  he  was  called  upon  to  speak,  he  explained 
to  the  people  the  advantages  of  the  treaty  he  had  secured 
for  them.  In  fact,  a  reaction  of  popularity  had  set  in  ;  and 
the  defeat  of  the  previous  administration,  which  at  first 
seemed  an  untoward  circumstance  to  have  occurred  so  near 
the  close  of  his  government,  proved  the  most  fortunate  event 
for  Lord  Elgin's  own  reputation,  for  it  gave  unanswerable 
evidence  to  the  constitutionality  of  his  conduct,  which  had 
always  been  impugned.  I  cannot  do  better  than  quote  his 
own  words  on  this  subject : 

"I  have  brought  into  office  the  gentlemen  who  made  themselves  for 
years  most  conspicuous  and  obnoxious  for  personal  hostility  to  myself, 
thus  giving  the  most  complete  negative  to  the  allegation  that  I  am  swayed 
by  personal  motives  in  the  selection  of  my  advisers  ;  and  these  gentlemen 
have  accepted  office  on  the  understanding  that  they  will  carry  out  in  all 
particulars  the  policy  which  I  sketched  out  while  my  former  administra- 
tion was  in  office,  thus  proving  that  the  policy  in  question  is  the  only  one 
suited  to  the  country — the  only  one  which  an  administration  can  adopt. 
I  do  not  see  how  the  blindest  can  fail  to  draw  this  inference  from  these 
facts.  The  first  thing  which  my  new  administration  have  had  to  do  is 
to  adopt  and  carry  through  the  House  the  address  responsive  to  my 
speech  from  the  throne.  This  is,  certainly  for  me,  and  I  hope  for  the 
country,  the  most  fortunate  wind-up  of  my  connection  with  Canada  which 
could  have  been  imagined."* 

*  Extracts  from  the  Letters  of  James,  Earl  of  Elgin,  to  Mary  Louisa, 
Countess  of  Elgin,  1847-1862.     Privately  printed. 


POLITICS   AND    INDIAN    AFFAIRS    IN    CANADA.  63 

It  was  indeed  a  fortunate  wind-up,  and  we  determined  to 
celebrate  it  as  such.  For  the  last  three  months  of  our  resi- 
dence at  Quebec  we  lived  in  a  perfect  whirl  of  gayety.  Balls, 
dinner  and  garden  parties,  and  picnics,  were  the  order  of  the 
day.  Society  took  the  cue  from  Government  House,  and  I 
found,  under  the  temptation  of  more  congenial  pursuits,  my 
parliamentary  attendance  getting  slack.  The  delights  of  a 
Canadian  winter,  with  its  sleighing  and  tobogganing  parties, 
have  become  proverbial.  Unfortunately  we  only  enjoyed 
one  month  of  them,  as  Sir  Edmund  Head,  Lord  Elgin's  suc- 
cessor, had  arrived,  and  we  merely  remained  a  few  weeks  to 
facilitate  the  transfer  of  the  government.  Sir  Edmund  was 
so  kind  as  to  urge  me  to  remain  with  him  in  the  office  I  was 
now  filling  ;  but  the  promise  which  Lord  Clarendon  had  pre- 
viously made  to  find  me  employment  in  the  East,  where  the 
stirring  nature  of  the  events  which  were  transpiring  offered 
the  strongest  attraction,  induced  me  to  decline  this  offer  and 
to  return  to  England  with  Lord  Elgin,  and  Lord  Bury  be- 
came my  successor  in  Canada.  When  I  left  home  I  had  not 
expected  to  be  absent  above  eight  weeks,  but  the  same  num- 
ber of  months  would  now  nearly  have  elapsed  before  our  re- 
turn to  British  soil.  It  was  nevertheless  with  a  heavy  heart 
that  on  a  bitter  morning  towards  the  end  of  December,  with 
the  thermometer  26°  below  zero,  I  left  Quebec;  the  streets 
were  for  the  last  time  lined  with  troops  as  we  drove  down  to 
our  place  of  embarkation,  and  the  greater  part  of  the  society 
was  collected  on  the  bank  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  as,  after  tak- 
ing an  affectionate  farewell  of  the  friends  with  whom  I  had 
formed  ties  of  warmer  friendship  than  is  usual  after  so  short 
a  residence,  we  stretched  ourselves  at  the  bottom  of  the  bark- 
canoes  in  which  we  were  to  be  ferried  across  the  broad  bosom 
of  the  river,  at  this  time  encumbered  with  huge  ice-floes  and 
enshrouded  in  a  dense  fog.  The  traject  is  not  without  dan- 
ger, and  is  exciting  in  proportion.  Our  muscular  boatmen 
paddle  us  rapidly  across  the  narrow  lanes  of  swift  open  water, 
haul  us  up  on  the  ragged  floes,  and  running  on  the  ice  by  the 


64  EPISODES    IN    A   LIFE    OF   ADVENTURE. 

side  of  the  canoes  rush  us  rapidly  across  them,  to  plunge  us 
into  the  river  again  on  the  other  side,  until,  after  more  than 
an  hour's  battling  with  the  ice,  we  find  ourselves  safely  hauled 
up  under  the  bank  at  Point  Levi.  A  few  days  afterwards  I 
watched  the  outline  of  the  American  continent  fading  on  the 
horizon,  and  little  imagined  as  I  did  so  that  this  was  only 
the  second  of  twenty-two  passages  I  was  destined  to  make 
across  the  Atlantic  in  the  course  of  the  ensuing  seven-and- 
twenty  years. 


CHAPTER  V. 

CRIMEAN    AND   CIRCASSIAN    EXPERIENCES. 

Owing  to  the  events  related  in  the  last  chapter,  nearly  a 
year  had  elapsed  before  I  was  again  in  a  position  to  offer  my 
services  to  the  government  for  employment  at  the  seat  of 
war,  but  Sebastopol  was  still  holding  out  bravely,  and  the 
public  were  getting  impatient  at  a  siege  so  protracted  and  so 
barren  of  definite  results.  I  was  emboldened  thereby  to 
publish  a  pamphlet,  in  which  I  suggested  the  expediency  of 
a  campaign  in  the  Caucasus,  a  part  of  the  world  to  which 
it  was  difficult  to  attract  attention,  until  the  siege  of  Kars 
forced  its  strategic  value  upon  public  notice.  Feeling 
strongly  the  importance  of  a  diversion  in  this  direction,  and 
the  use  which  might  be  made  of  the  Circassians,  who  were 
in  a  chronic  state  of  guerilla  warfare  with  Russia,  but  with 
whom,  during  the  year  that  our  own  hostilities  with  that  em- 
pire had  lasted,  we  had  opened  no  relations,  with  the  view 
of  inviting  their  co-operation  and  alliance,  I  proposed  to 
Lord  Clarendon  that  I  should  undertake  a  mission  to  Scha- 
myl,  for  the  purpose,  if  possible,  of  concerting  some  scheme 
with  that  chieftain  by  which  combined  operations  could  be 
carried  on,  either  with  the  Turkish  contingent  which  was 
then  just  organized  by  General  Vivian,  or  with  the  Turkish 
regular  army.  It  had  always  seemed  to  me  that  to  ignore 
the  existence  of  a  race  of  brave  and  warlike  mountaineers, 
who  were  fanatic  Moslems,  fighting  in  the  heart  of  Russia  for 
their  independence,  and  yet  most  easily  accessible  by  sea, 
was  wilfully  to  cast  aside  a  most  powerful  weapon  for  attack 
which  the  fortune  of  war  had  placed  in  our  hands :  we  had 


66  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE    OF   ADVENTURE. 

only  to  land  a  strong  Moslem  force  at  Sujak  Kaleh,  on  the 
Black  Sea  coast,  whether  of  Beatson's  Bashi-Bazouks,  or 
Vivian's  contingent,  or  Turkish  regulars,  provided  they  were 
Moslems,  to  have  the  whole  male  population  of  Circassia, 
every  one  a  trained  warrior,  flock  to  our  standard.  Such  a 
force  would  have  the  friendly  mountains  on  its  right  flank  to 
retreat  to  in  case  of  necessity,  the  river  Kuban  to  protect  its 
left  flank,  and  the  rich  plains  which  lie  between  the  Kuban 
and  the  mountains  to  march  across. 

The  objective  points  of  such  an  expedition  would  have 
been  the  passes  of  Dariel  and  Derbend.  These  two  moun- 
tain defiles  closed  by  an  allied  army  of  Circassians  and 
Turkish  or  irregular  Moslem  troops,  all  access  into  Trans- 
caucasia would  have  been  barred  to  Russia  except  by  way 
of  the  Caspian  Sea  from  Astrakhan — a  most  difficult  and 
tedious  operation,  for  in  those  days  the  steam-transport  upon 
it  was  too  limited  for  the  conveyance  of  an  army  except 
in  minute  driblets.  The  Russian  army  in  the  Caucasus,  at 
that  time  under  General  Mouravieff,  only  amounted  to  sixty 
thousand  men.  The  Transcaucasian  provinces  of  Abkhasia, 
Mingrelia,  Imeritia,  Georgia,  and  Gouriel  were  all  of  them 
disaffected  to  Russia — as  I  afterwards  had  an  opportunity 
of  knowing  when  I  campaigned  through  them — and  being 
almost  exclusively  Christian,  would  have  welcomed  with  de- 
light a  Christian  army  come  to  release  them  from  the  Mus- 
covite yoke.  This  army  would  only  have  had  to  contend 
with  that  under  Mouravieff,  and  would  have  operated  in 
combination  not  only  with  the  force  on  the  Kuban,  holding 
the  northern  passes,  but  with  a  Turkish  army  advancing 
from  the  direction  of  Kars.  Mouravieff  and  his  force  would 
thus  have  infallibly  been  caught  in  a  trap,  from  which  there 
was  positively  no  escape.  Not  only  would  Kars  never  have 
fallen,  but  Russia  would  have  lost  all  her  Transcaucasian 
provinces  to  boot.  At  that  time  the  allied  armies — French, 
English,  and  Italian — round  Sebastopol  numbered  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand  men  ;  but  even  supposing  none  of 


CRIMEAN   AND    CIRCASSIAN    EXPERIENCES.  67 

these  could  be  spared,  Turkey  could  have  furnished  a  force 
of  fifty  thousand  men  under  Omer  Pasha,  exclusive  of  the 
Kars  troops,  which,  with  twenty-five  thousand  of  Vivian's  and 
Beatson's,  would  have  sufficed  for  the  operation. 

These  considerations  I  urged  so  strongly  on  Lord  Claren- 
don that  he  determined  to  send  me  to  Constantinople  with 
a  letter  to  Lord  Stratford  de  Redcliffe,  authorizing  him  to 
send  me  to  Daghestan,  in  the  Eastern  Caucasus,  where 
Schamyl  had  his  stronghold,  for  the  purpose  of  making  cer- 
tain overtures  to  him,  at  his  lordship's  own  discretion.  Lord 
Stratford  listened  most  sympathetically  to  my  proposal ;  in- 
deed he  had  been  for  months  urging  on  the  government  that 
a  campaign  should  be  undertaken  without  delay  for  the  re- 
lief of  Kars — and  of  the  rival  plans  proposed,  was  by  no 
means  opposed  to  the  operation  being  undertaken  by  way 
of  the  Caucasus,  as  a  diversion  to  compel  Mouravieff  to  raise 
the  siege.  He  had  also  sent  Mr.  Longworth  to  the  coast  of 
Circassia  to  communicate  with  the  naib,  Schamyl's  lieuten- 
ant in  the  Western  Caucasus ;  but  he  declined  to  commit 
himself  to  sanctioning  my  proposed  expedition  to  Schamyl, 
on  account  of  the  great  personal  risk  which  attached  to  such 
an  enterprise.  Of  the  naib's  own  messengers,  which  he  de- 
spatched from  time  to  time  from  the  Western  to  the  Eastern 
Caucasus,  it  was  calculated  that  not  more  than  one  in  three 
ever  reached  his  destination  ;  to  do  so,  it  was  necessary  to 
cross  a  district  in  Russian  hands,  called  the  Two  Kabardas. 
The  only  way  to  do  this  was  to  ride  all  night,  and  lie  con- 
cealed in  some  hiding-place  all  day ;  but,  as  I  understood, 
neither  woods  nor  caves  abounded,  and  to  play  a  game  of 
hide-and-seek  in  an  open  country,  with  a  scattered  hostile 
population,  and  Cossack  guerillas  continually  scouring  it  in 
every  direction  for  the  express  purpose  of  intercepting  such 
messengers,  was  one  which  experience  had  proved  had  more 
often  than  not  cost  those  who  had  engaged  in  it  their  lives. 
Lord  Stratford's  hesitation,  therefore,  to  despatch  me  at  once, 
proceeded  from  motives  for  which  I  could  not  feel  otherwise 


68  EPISODES    IN    A   LIFE    OF   ADVENTURE. 

than  grateful,  though  I  was  much  disappointed  at  his  objec- 
tions, which  I  did  my  best  to  overcome.  Finally  he  gave  me 
a  sort  of  qualified  promise,  and  in  the  meantime  proposed 
to  me  as  a  consolation  that  I  should  accompany  him  to  the 
Crimea  on  the  occasion  of  his  proceeding  to  the  seat  of  war 
to  confer  medals  and  decorations  on  the  gallant  officers  who 
had  so  well  earned  them.  Until  the  day  appointed  for  our 
departure  arrived,  he  was  so  kind  as  to  extend  the  hospital- 
ity of  the  embassy  to  me,  and  here  I  came  in  contact  with 
probably  a  more  brilliant  group  of  men,  so  far  as  talent  was 
concerned,  than  could  be  found  in  any  diplomatic  circle  in 
Europe. 

Lord  Napier,  then  secretary  of  embassy  ;  Odo  Russell, 
afterwards  Lord  Ampthill ;  Percy  Smylhe,  afterwards  Lord 
Strangford;  Charles  Alison,  afterwards  minister  in  Persia — 
were  all  men  of  quite  remarkable  ability,  and  the  last  two  of 
exceptional  Oriental  attainments  ;  while,  if  Lord  Pevensey, 
Lionel  Moore,  and  Brodie,  the  three  juniors,  never  made  a 
mark  in  the  world,  it  was  from  no  lack  of  capacity  of  a  truly 
high  order,  which  they  each  severally  possessed.  The  days 
passed  in  such  society  are  not  to  be  forgotten  ;  and  I  have 
never  since  been  thrown  with  so  many  men  where  the  stories 
were  so  racy,  the  repartee  so  quick,  the  flow  of  wit  so  con- 
stant, or  the  conversation  generally  so  brilliant,  as  among 
those  by  whom  Lord  Stratford  was  surrounded  at  the  time 
of  the  Crimean  war.  If  anything  could  reconcile  me  to  de- 
lay in  the  realization  of  my  projects,  it  was  life  on  the  lovely 
shores  of  the  Bosporus,  under  these  conditions,  with  all  the 
excitement  attendant  upon  a  residence  at  the  embassy,  when 
any  hour  might  bring  stirring  intelligence  from  the  seat  of 
war,  and  almost  every  day  brought  arrivals  of  officers  fresh 
from  it,  with  graphic  details  of  personal  adventure.  The 
little  quay  at  Therapia  swarmed  with  uniforms,  faded  and 
war-worn,  or  spick  and  span,  betraying  the  veteran  or  the 
new-comer,  as  the  case  might  be ;  while  a  constant  succes- 
sion of  transports  and  steam-vessels  of  all  kinds,  varied  now 


CRIMEAN   AND   CIRCASSIAN    EXPERIENCES.  69 

and  then  by  a  man-of-war,  and  caiques  darting  to  and  fro, 
imparted  an  air  of  animation  to  a  scene  which  is  at  all  times 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  in  Europe,  but  which  was  then  in- 
vested with  a  thrilling  interest. 

At  last  the  day  fixed  for  our  departure  arrived,  and  on  the 
24th  of  August,  1855,  we  embarked  on  Her  Majesty's  de- 
spatch-vessel Telegraph  —  the  party  consisting  of  the  am- 
bassador, Lord  Napier,  General  Mansfield  (afterwards  Lord 
Sandhurst),  Count  Pisani — whose  name  must  ever  be  identi- 
fied with  the  British  Embassy  at  Constantinople  as  one  of 
the  oldest  and  most  trusted  members  —  Messrs.  Alison, 
Moore,  Brodie,  and  myself.  Owing  to  a  fog,  it  was  dark  the 
following  evening  before  we  approached  our  destination,  and 
we  only  knew  of  our  proximity  to  land  by  the  distant  flashes 
of  the  guns  through  the  darkness,  and  the  sullen  reverbera- 
tion which  followed  them.  When  day  broke  I  found  that 
we  were  at  anchor  at  the  entrance  to  Kamiesch  Bay,  which 
was  crowded  with  the  British  fleet.  Weighing,  we  steamed 
slowly  through  them,  amid  the  thunder  of  salutes,  the  man- 
ning of  yards,  and  the  strains  of  the  national  anthem,  to 
our  anchorage  ;  then  followed  the  official  visits,  and  long 
discussions  on  the  affairs  of  the  nations,  between  Lord  Strat- 
ford and  Admirals  Lyons  and  Bruat,  during  which  I  watched 
the  progress  of  the  bombardment  through  a  telescope,  being 
able  distinctly  to  see  the  shells  from  the  Russian  batteries 
exploding  in  the  French  trenches,  and  the  scurry  which  fol- 
lowed each  such  event.  We  spent  the  whole  day  in  Kami- 
esch Bay,  dining  at  night  at  a  banquet  given  to  the  ambas- 
sador on  board  the  Royal  Albert,  at  which  the  two  English 
and  two  French  admirals  were  present,  besides  a  great  many 
distinguished  officers.  I  could  not  but  feel  the  contrast — as 
we  sat  on  deck  and  sipped  our  coffee  after  dinner,  listening  to 
the  incessant  roar  of  the  cannonade,  and  watching  shell  after 
shell  explode  in  the  darkness — between  our  own  condition 
of  luxurious  and  festive  enjoyment  and  the  agonies  which 
hundreds  of  poor  fellows  were  at  that  very  moment  enduring. 


70  EPISODES    IN    A    LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

The  next  morning  we  rode  up  to  camp,  where  I  was  so 
fortunate  as  to  find  my  old  friend  Captain  Valentine  Baker, 
then  of  the  Twelfth  Lancers  (now  Baker  Pasha),  in  com- 
mand of  the  headquarter  escort,  established  in  a  capacious 
Indian  hut,  which  he  kindly  invited  me  to  share  with  him 
during  my  stay  in  the  Crimea,  and  where,  owing  to  its  prox- 
imity to  headquarters,  I  was  in  the  best  position  to  be  in- 
formed as  to  the  events  which  were  transpiring.  The  am- 
bassador, less  fortunate,  as  I  considered,  than  I  was,  slept 
every  night  during  his  stay  with  the  army  on  board  the  Tele- 
graph, the  labor  of  riding  to  camp  and  back  each  day  add- 
ing not  a  little  to  the  fatigue  of  the  functions  he  was  called 
upon  to  perform.  First,  there  was  a  grand  breakfast  given 
in  his  honor  by  Sir  James  Simpson,  who  had  succeeded 
Lord  Raglan  as  commander-in-chief,  the  solemn  dignity  of 
which  I  was  glad  to  escape,  and  take  a  more  lively  midday 
meal  with  Captain  (now  Admiral  Sir  Harry)  Keppel  and 
some  of  the  Naval  Brigade.  I  had  also  many  friends  among 
the  Engineers  and  Artillery,  with  one  of  whom  I  made  an 
exciting  expedition  to  the  most  advanced  trench,  which,  as 
it  was  only  a  few  weeks  prior  to  the  surrender  of  Sebastopol, 
had  been  pushed  to  an  unpleasantly  close  proximity  to  the 
fortress,  and  the  shelter  of  which,  to  my  unprofessional  mind 
and  unaccustomed  nerves,  was  meagre  to  a  degree,  and  by 
no  means  dispensed  with  the  constant  exercise  of  watchful- 
ness and  agility,  as  the  enemy's  shells  came  lobbing  into  it, 
and  exploding  in  all  sorts  of  unexpected  quarters.  To  go  to 
the  farthest  extreme  point,  to  pop  one's  head  over  the  trench 
for  a  moment  and  take  a  hurried  glance  over  the  narrow 
space  intervening  between  it  and  the  nearest  embrasures,  to 
see  them  belch  forth  their  smoke  almost  in  one's  face,  to 
hear  the  ping  of  the  rifle-bullets  aimed  at  too  curious  observ- 
ers of  this  description,  and  suddenly  to  pop  down  again — 
was  to  achieve  an  experience  which  one  felt  it  totally  unnec- 
essary to  repeat,  more  especially  as  the  main  object  of  un- 
dergoing it  at  all  seemed  to  be  to  be  able  afterwards  to  say 


CRIMEAN    AND    CIRCASSIAN    EXPERIENCES.  7 1 

you  had  done  it.  It  was  in  the  Engineers'  camp  that  I  first 
made  the  acquaintance  of  General  Gordon — a  fact  which  we 
had  both  forgotten,  until,  on  comparing  notes  in  Palestine  in 
December,  1883,  only  a  month  before  he  left  London  for 
Khartoum,  we  recalled  the  circumstances  of  our  first  meet- 
ing eight-and-twenty  years  before. 

Scrambling  about  the  camp  before  Sebastopol  was  attend- 
ed with  extreme  difficulty  for  a  visitor ;  the  distances  were 
so  great,  and  the  disposition  of  the  army  to  a  stranger  seemed 
so  complicated,  that  endless  inquiries  often  landed  you  at 
last  at  a  wrong  destination.  Then  the  walking  was  so  de- 
testable that  a  horse,  which  had  on  each  occasion  to  be  bor- 
rowed, was  an  almost  absolute  necessity.  I  could  scarcely 
recognize,  as  I  wandered  through  the  maze  of  tents  and 
huts,  that  three  years  before  I  had  driven  across  the  same 
country,  from  Balaclava  into  Sebastopol,  without,  so  far  as  I 
can  recollect,  meeting  a  soul ;  and  that  the  frowning  bat- 
teries which  held  at  bay  the  English,  French,  Italian,  and 
Turkish  armies  had  all  been  erected  since  then.  It  was  a 
strange  coincidence  that,  on  leaving  Sebastopol  on  that  oc- 
casion, the  wheel  of  the  wagon  I  was  in  should  have  given 
way,*  and  afforded  me  an  opportunity  of  sketching  the  iden- 
tical slopes  of  Inkermann,  with  the  stream  meandering  at 
their  base,  upon  which,  about  eighteen  months  afterwards, 
the  celebrated  battle  was  destined  to  be  fought. 

Finding  myself  next  to  Sir  John  Burgoyne  at  dinner  one 
night  at  headquarters,  I  reminded  him  of  our  meeting  in  Lon- 
don, and  I  asked  him  whether  the  information  I  had  given 
him  on  that  occasion,  as  to  the  defenceless  condition  of  Se- 
bastopol, was  correct.  He  admitted  that  it  was,  and  that 
after  the  battle  of  the  Alma  it  would  have  been  perfectly 
possible  to  have  taken  the  town  by  assault;  but  he  said  it 

*  See  "  The  Russian  Shores  of  the  Black  Sea  in  the  Autumn  of  1S52  ; 
with  a  Voyage  down  the  Volga,  and  a  Tour  through  the  Country  of  the 
Don  Cossacks."  By  Laurence  Oliphant.  William  Blackwood  &  Sons, 
Edinburgh  and  London  :  1854. 


72  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF    ADVENTURE. 

would  have  involved  a  great  loss  of  men,  as  the  fire  from  the 
houses  in  which  the  enemy  were  ensconced  would  have  been 
very  destructive,  a  loss  which  he  calculated  would  be  avoid- 
ed by  awaiting  the  arrival  of  the  siege-train.  He  further 
had  the  frankness  to  admit,  however,  that  he  had  not  taken 
the  genius  of  a  Todleben  into  his  calculations,  and  that  they 
had  been  completely  upset  by  the  remarkable  engineering 
skill,  in  the  matter  of  earth-works,  of  that  celebrated  officer. 

On  the  third  day  after  our  arrival  in  the  Crimea,  the  grand 
function  took  place  which  had  been  the  special  object  of 
Lord  Stratford's  visit  to  the  seat  of  war.  The  weather  was 
lovely.  About  two  thousand  men  were  formed  into  a  square, 
which  was  decorated  with  numerous  flags  floating  in  the 
breeze.  A  sort  of  raised  dais  had  been  constructed  for  the 
ambassador,  who,  seated  upon  it,  invested  Sir  Edmund  Lyons 
and  Sir  Colin  Campbell  with  the  insignia  of  G.C.B.,  and  sev- 
eral other  officers  with  the  lower  grades  of  the  same  order. 
It  was  a  striking  moment  as  the  guns  thundered  forth  a  royal 
salute,  to  hear  it  broken  in  upon  by  the  boom  of  the  cannon 
sending  forth  their  defiant  response,  and  to  see  now  and  then 
a  shell  bursting  in  the  air,  to  remind  one  that  these  gallant 
soldiers,  like  the  knights  of  old,  were  being  decorated  upon 
the  field  of  battle,  and  amid  the  din  of  actual  warfare. 

Meantime  I  was  getting  anxious  about  my  own  fate.  The 
ambassador  had  been  so  much  occupied  with  receptions,  en- 
tertainments, and  grand  functions — among  them  a  great  dis- 
play which  M.  Soyer  gave  us  of  camp  cookery — that  I  had 
shrunk  from  troubling  him  with  my  personal  affairs,  and  yet 
the  prospect  of  going  back  with  him  to  Constantinople  did 
not  smile  upon  me.  The  Duke  of  Newcastle,  who  was  then 
in  the  Crimea,  having  resigned  his  seat  in  the  cabinet,  pro- 
jected a  trip  to  the  Caucasus,  and  was  kind  enough  to  in- 
vite me  to  accompany  him  :  but  I  clung  rather  to  the  idea 
of  a  special  mission  to  Schamyl  in  Daghestan,  the  necessity 
for  which,  it  seemed  to  me,  was  every  day  more  pressing.  It 
had  become  evident  that  Sebastopol  could  not  hold  out  much 


CRIMEAN    AND    CIRCASSIAN    EXPERIENCES.  73 

longer ;  but  there  was  no  reason  to  suppose  that  we  were  go- 
ing to  be  dragged  into  a  peace  by  the  French,  by  which  the 
results  of  the  war  would  be  in  a  great  measure  sacrificed. 
On  the  contrary,  it  seemed  likely  that  the  scene  of  opera- 
tions would  be  transferred  to  another  quarter,  and  that  the 
government  would  at  last  open  its  eyes  to  the  fact  that 
the  most  vulnerable  spot  in  the  Russian  empire  was  the  Cau- 
casian provinces,  I  did  not  then  know,  what  I  discovered 
afterwards,  as  may  be  proved  by  official  documents,  that  it 
entered  into  the  policy  of  our  allies  to  sacrifice  our  Eastern 
interests  to  their  own  immediate  necessities,  though,  as  it 
afterwards  turned  out,  at  the  period  of  my  visit  to  the  Cri- 
mea, General  Pelissier  was  pursuing  a  course  which  could 
bear  no  other  construction.  At  that  very  moment  Lord 
Stratford  was  receiving  from  General  Williams  news  of  the 
straits  to  which  the  garrison  of  Kars  was  being  rapidly  re- 
duced by  the  besieging  army  under  General  Mouravieff,  and 
of  the  necessity  of  immediate  relief  being  sent  to  prevent  its 
capture ;  and  was  urging  on  the  British  government  the  ex- 
pediency of  sending  the  Turkish  army,  then  lying  idle  in  the 
Crimea  under  Omer  Pasha,  to  its  relief.  Six  weeks  before 
our  visit,  Omer  Pasha  had  met  the  generals  of  the  allied  ar- 
mies in  conference,  had  explained  to  them  the  useless  inac- 
tivity to  which  he,  with  his  whole  army,  was  condemned,  and 
had  implored  them  to  let  him  at  once  undertake  an  Asiatic 
campaign  for  the  relief  of  Kars  ;  but  his  arguments  had 
failed  to  move  them — General  Pelissier  being  most  emphatic 
in  his  objection  to  it,  and  General  Simpson  being  a  passive 
tool  in  the  hands  of  his  French  colleague.  Lord  Stratford, 
however,  took  a  very  different  view  of  the  situation,  and  so 
strongly  advocated  the  measure  urged  by  Omer  Pasha  that 
he  had  extracted  the  consent  of  the  British  government  to  it, 
qualified,  however,  by  the  proviso  "that  the  government  of 
the  emperor  will  concur  in  it."  The  emperor  only  concurred 
in  it  subject  to  the  approval  of  General  Pe'lissicr,  who  flatly 
refused.  It  was  at  this  juncture  thai  wc  were  in  the  Crimea 
4 


74  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF  ADVENTURE, 

—the  battle  of  the  Tchernaya  had  been  fought,  the  fall  of 
Sebastopol  had  become  a  matter  of  days.     There  were  one 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  allied  English,  French,  and  Ital- 
ian troops  awaiting  its  surrender,  and  not  exposed  to  the 
slightest  danger  ;  and  yet,  in  General  Pelissier's  opinion,  the 
safety  of  these  three  European   armies  depended  upon  the 
presence  by  their  side  of  thirty  thousand  Turkish  troops. 
Had  this  force  been  allowed  to  leave  the  Crimea  while  we 
were  there,  the  event  pToved  that  they  would  have  been  in 
plenty  of  time  to  have  saved  Kars,  which  did  not  capitulate 
for  three  months  after  this.       A  month  later,  the  Turkish 
army  was  still  kicking  its  heels  in  front  of  Sebastopol,  to  the 
great  discomfort  of  the  other  three  armies,  who  had  difficulty 
enough  in  finding  camping-grounds  and  supplies.     Sebas- 
topol had  faUen  a  fortnight  before.     General  Pelissier  had 
been  deprived  of  his  last  excuse,  and  yet  we  read  in  a  de- 
spatch from  Colonel  (now  General)  Sir  Lintorn  Simmons, 
the  English  commissioner  with  the  Turkish  army,  dated  the 
2ist  September:  "General  Simpson  has  informed  me  that 
he  sees  no  objection  to  their  [the  Turkish  troops]  departure. 
The  only  obstacle  seems  to  be  that  the  assent  of  General 
Pelissier  and  the  French  government  has  not  been  given." 
At  last,  a  week  later,  this  consent  was  reluctantly  extracted. 
And  the  record  of  the  campaign   of  the  Turkish  army  in 
the  Caucasus,  in  which  I  took  part,  proved  that  it  was  given 
three  weeks  too  late.     Had  the  Turkish  army  been  released 
even  the  day  after  Sebastopol  fell,  it  would  have  been  in 
Tiflis  before  Kars  surrendered,  and  Mouravieff  would  have 
been  compelled  to  raise  the  siege  of  that  fortress.    As  it  was, 
we  had  arrived  at  a  point  one  hundred  and  thirty  miles  from 
Tiflis,  or  ten  days'  easy  marching,  with  nothing  to  oppose 
our  advance  but  a  Russian  force  scarce  a  third  of  our  own 
number,  which  had  already  suffered  one  serious  defeat  at  our 
hands,  and  was  in  full  retreat  before  us,  when    the    news 
reached  us  of  General  Williams's  surrender. 

It  was  a  story  which  has  since  almost  found  its  parallel  in 


CRIMEAN   AND   CIRCASSIAN    EXPERIENCES.  75 

the  failure  of  the  expedition  to  relieve  General  Gordon  at 
Khartoum  ;  but  the  circumstances  which  attended  the  fatal 
delay  were  not  so  well  known,  for  at  that  moment  the  entente 
cordiale  with  France  was  supposed  to  be  a  consideration  of 
paramount  importance  in  our  policy,  and  it  might  have  been 
seriously  imperilled  had  the  British  public  thoroughly  un- 
derstood at  the  time  that  the  fall  of  Kars,  which  was  being 
defended  by  British  ofiicers,  was  directly  due  to  the  refusal 
of  the  French  government  to  allow  a  force  which  was  doing 
nothing  in  the  Crimea  to  proceed  to  its  relief. 

It  was  doubtless  the  increased  prominence  which  the  ex- 
posed territories  of  Russia  on  the  eastern  shores  of  the 
Black  Sea  were  likely  to  assume  so  soon  as  Sebaslopol  fell, 
which  induced  Lord  Stratford  to  send  Mr.  Alison  from  the 
Crimea  at  this  time  on  a  special  mission  to  Circassia,  with 
instructions  to  confer  with  Mr.  Longworth  in  anticipation  of 
future  contingencies,  the  more  especially  as  the  conduct  of 
the  Turkish  officials  who  had  been  placed  in  the  forts  cap- 
tured by  us  from  the  Russians  on  the  coast  of  Circassia,  and 
their  treatment  of  the  natives,  had  not  been  such  as  to  give 
unqualified  satisfaction.  In  Mr.  Alison's  instructions  he  was 
directed  to  confer  with  Mr.  Longworth  in  regard  to  my  proj- 
ect of  going  as  an  emissary  of  the  British  government  to 
Daghestan,  and  I  was  informed  that  I  was  to  accompany 
him. 

It  was  therefore  in  high  spirits  that,  on  the  evening  of  the 
last  day  of  August,  I  embarked  with  Mr.  Alison  on  board 
H.M.S.  Highfiyer,  Captain  Moore,  which  was  detached  from 
the  squadron  in  order  to  take  us  to  Circassia.  At  Kertch  I 
found  the  Seventy-first  Highlanders,  whom  I  had  known  well 
the  previous  year  at  Quebec,  and  after  spending  a  pleasant 
day  with  them,  went  on  to  Anapa,  the  first  or  most  northerly 
Circassian  fort  which  we  had  taken  from  the  Russians.  Here 
we  transferred  ourselves  to  H.M.S.  Cyclops,  which  had  been 
placed  at  the  disposal  of  Mr.  Longworth ;  and  in  that  com- 
fortable and  roomy  old  tub— of  a  type  now  obsolete — had  a 


76  EPISODES    IN    A   LIFE    OF   ADVENTURE. 

most  enjoyable  cruise  along  the  Circassian  coast,  landing  re- 
peatedly at  the  dismantled  Russian  forts  occupied  by  Circas- 
sians, who  received  us  everywhere  most  cordiall}',  for  they 
had  formed  a  most  exalted  idea  of  British  prowess  when 
they  found  that  the  forts  which  had  always  resisted  their 
efforts  had  either  been  abandoned  or  surrendered  at  once 
to  the  guns  of  the  British  fleet.  I  had  earnestly  wished  to 
proceed  on  my  mission  to  Daghestan  from  Anapa,  which  I 
thought  the  most  eligible  starting-point ;  but  both  Alison 
and  Longworth  were  of  opinion  that  it  would  be  desirable 
first  to  communicate  with  the  naib,  Schamyl's  lieutenant  in 
the  Western  Caucasus,  and  procure,  if  possible,  an  escort. 

We  hoped  to  find  that  chief  within  reaching  distance  from 
the  coast;  but  in  this  we  were  disappointed,  and  it  was 
deemed  undesirable  to  incur  the  delay  of  trying  to  reach  him  in 
the  mountains,  as  it  was  considered  important  that  a  confer- 
ence should  first  be  held  with  Omer  Pasha,  who  had  just  ar- 
rived at  Trebizond,  to  decide  upon  the  best  strategical  meas- 
ures to  be  taken  for  the  relief  of  Kars.  To  my  mind  the  en- 
joyment of  a  yachting  cruise  in  a  comfortable  man-of-war,  at 
the  loveliest  season  of  the  year,  along  the  most  exquisite 
coast-scenery  to  be  found  anywhere,  and  in  the  most  agreea- 
ble company,  scarcely  compensated  for  the  uncertainty  and 
delay  which  thus  attended  the  realization  of  my  own  project. 
Our  party  consisted  of  Messrs.  Alison  and  Longworth  ;  Mr. 
(now  Sir  Alfred)  Sandison,  the  nephew  and  at  that  time  the 
private  secretary  of  the  latter  ;  Captain  Ballard,  who  com- 
manded the  Cyclops  ;  and  myself.  At  Trebizond  we  found 
the  Turkish  commander-in-chief  perfectly  furious  at  the  de- 
lay to  which  he  had  been  subjected  by  the  generals  in  the 
Crimea,  unable  to  form  any  definite  plan  of  campaign  until 
he  knew  what  the  strength  of  his  army  was  to  be,  and  when 
it  was  to  be  at  his  disposal ;  a  position  of  matters  which  was 
aggravated  by  the  fact  that  while  here  we  heard  of  the  fall 
of  Sebastopol,  but  received  no  intelligence  that  the  Turkish 
army  had  left  the  Crimea  in  consequence. 


CRIMEAN   AND   CIRCASSIAN   EXPERIENCES.  77 

The  strategic  question  at  issue  was,  whether  it  would  be 
best  to  attempt  the  relief  of  Kars  direct  from  Trebizond  by 
way  of  Erzeroum — the  objection  to  which  plan  was,  that 
there  was  no  harbor  at  Trebizond,  and  the  disembarkation 
of  troops  might  be  attended  with  great  danger,  delay,  and 
difficulty  ;  or  from  Batoum,  which  possessed  an  excellent 
harbor,  but  the  roads  from  which  place,  across  the  country 
to  Kars,  were  almost  impracticable  for  artillery  ;  or  whether 
it  would  not  be  best  to  land  at  Sukhum  Kaleh,  and  march 
directly  on  Tiflis,  thus  threatening  the  whole  of  Russian 
Transcaucasia,  and  creating  a  diversion  in  favor  of  Kars  by 
compelling  Mouravieff  to  raise  the  siege  of  that  fortress.  On 
visiting  Batoum,  I  was  much  struck  with  its  great  strategic 
value  as  a  port — a  value  which  the  Russians  recognize  so 
fully  that  they  succeeded  in  acquiring  it  by  the  Treaty  of 
Berlin,  and  are  now  fortifying  it  in  direct  defiance  of  a  clause 
in  that  treaty  prohibiting  them  from  doing  so.  The  Ameri- 
can code  of  commercial  morality  is,  that  it  is  perfectly  legit- 
imate to  break  a  solemn  contract  if  the  advantages  to  be 
gained  more  than  compensate  for  the  damages  which  you 
will  have  to  pay  for  so  doing  under  a  legal  judgment.  The 
modern  code  of  international  morality  seems  to  be,  that  it  is 
perfectly  legitimate  to  break  a  treaty  if  you  can  do  so  without 
incurring  the  risks  of  war;  and  it  is  in  accordance  with  that 
code  that  the  Russians  are  now  acting  in  the  matter  of  Batoum. 

The  delays  consequent  upon  the  departure  of  his  army 
from  the  Crimea  finally  decided  Omer  Pasha  to  undertake  a 
campaign  in  the  Transcaucasus,  with  Tiflis  as  an  objective 
point.  Meantime  Mr.  Alison  left  us  at  Trebizond,  to  go 
back  to  Constantinople;  and  we  returned  in  the  Cyclops  to 
Sukhum  Kaleh,  to  start  upon  an  expedition  from  that  point 
into  the  interior,  which  had  been  decided  upon,  with  the  ob- 
ject of  distributing  proclamations,  calling  upon  the  inhabi- 
tants to  rise  and  co-operate  with  their  Mohammedan  breth- 
ren, who  were  coming  to  free  them  from  the  Muscovite  yoke. 
As,  however,  there  were  reasons  why  we  could  not   start 


7S  EPISODES    IN    A    LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

upon  this  mission  until  Oraer  Pasiia  arrived,  and  as  the  com- 
mander-in-chief lingered  so  long  at  Batoum  that  our  patience 
was  becoming  exhausted,  Mr.  Longworth  sent  me  back  to 
that  place  in  the  Cyclops  to  discover  the  cause  of  the  delay. 
In  answer  to  my  urgent  representations  that  we  were  anx- 
ious, before  the  season  for  crossing  the  mountains  closed,  to 
start  on  our  expedition,  Omer  Pasha  insisted  that  there  was 
no  cause  for  hurry  ;  that  he  intended  to  summon  a  great 
meeting  of  Circassian  chiefs  at  Sukhum  Kaleh,  and  that  he 
would  then  make  arrangements  for  us  all  to  start  from  Sujak 
Kaleh    and   go  into   the  interior    together,  by  way  of  the 
plains   to  the  north  of  the  range.     I  represented  that  we 
should  thus  be  exposed  to  Russian  attack;  but  he  main- 
tained that  we  could  always  retreat  in  case  of  necessity  into 
the  mountains  on  our  right  flank,  and  that  he  would  arrange 
that  the  force  should  be  large  enough  to  resist  any  Cossack 
irregulars  we  were  likely  to  meet.     Meantime  he  desired  me 
to  return  to  Sukhum  Kaleh  and  request  Mr.  Longworth  to 
come  back  to  Batoum,  and  to  stop  on  the  way  at  a  small 
place  called  Shefkatil,  to  meet  there  the  Prince  of  Geoigia's 
brother,  and  endeavor  to  make  terms  with  him,  which  should 
induce  the  prince  to  declare  himself  in  favor  of  the  allies. 
On  our  way  back  we  took  provisions  to  the  Turkish  garri- 
son at  Redoute  Kaleh,  which,  1  verily  believe,  would  have 
starved  to  death  had  it  not  been  for  our  opportune  arrival. 
Mr.  Longworth  at  once  responded  to  Omer  Pasha's  appeal ; 
but  no  Georgian  prince  was  forthcoming  at  Shefkatil  accord- 
ing to  appointment,  though  an  extremely  picturesque  emis- 
sary arrived  at  Batoum  shortly  after  we  got  there,  and  had 
a  long  and  secret  conference  with  Omer  Pasha.     I  suspect, 
however,  that  his  master  the  prince  was  not  inclined  to  com- 
mit himself  definitely  to  the  desertion  of  the  Russians  ;  and 
as  it  afterwards  turned  out,  it  was  fortunate  for  him  that  he 
contented  himself  with  temporizing.     At  last  we  succeeded 
in  dragging  Omer  Pasha  out  of  Batoum,  and  took  him  with 
us  to  Sukhum  on  board  the  Cyclops. 


CRIMEAN   AND   CIRCASSIAN    EXPERIENCES.  79 

I  had  now  performed  the  voyage  between  Sukhum  and 
Batoum  six  times,  hammering  away  in  a  futile  manner  on  the 
rim  of  the  country  I  so  ardently  desired  to  penetrate,  unable 
to  get  any  positive  decision  arrived  at  in  regard  to  my  mis- 
sion, which  was  all  the  more  aggravating,  as  it  was  constantly 
being  talked  of  as  a  thing  which,  sooner  or  later,  under  some 
circumstances  or  other,  either  in  company  with  Mr.  Long- 
worth  or  alone,  or  with  a  strong  force  or  a  small  escort,  or 
by  the  mountains  or  by  the  plains,  was  to  come  off;  but  as 
week  after  week  passed,  it  seemed  further  from  being  ac- 
complished than  ever.  At  last,  three  days  after  our  arrival 
at  Sukhum  Kaleh,  Omer  Pasha  informed  me  that  he  wished 
to  send  me  on  a  special  mission  from  himself  to  the  naib. 
As,  when  its  purport  was  explained  to  Mr.  Longworth,  it  re 
ceived  that  gentleman's  full  concurrence,  my  spirits  rose  as 
they  had  never  done  before.  I  had  made  all  my  prepara- 
tions, received  my  instructions,  and  on  the  morning  of  ray 
start  was  only  waiting  the  arrival  of  the  Turkish  officer  who 
was  to  accompany  me,  when  he  appeared  with  the  depressing 
intelligence  that  Omer  Pasha  had  changed  his  mind,  and  had 
given  up  the  idea  of  sending  the  proposed  mission,  as  news 
had  reached  him  that  the  naib  was  on  his  way  from  the  in- 
terior to  pay  his  respects  in  person  to  the  Turkish  generalis- 
simo. I  thought  the  Fates  were  certainly  against  me,  as  I 
sadly  ordered  my  horse  back  to  the  stable,  and  resigned  my- 
self to  the  chapter  of  accidents.  Omer  Pasha  had  not  been 
misinformed.  The  naib  arrived  a  few  days  after,  and  at  the 
same  time  the  Highflyer  appeared,  having  on  board  the  Duke 
of  Newcastle  and  INIr.  (now  Lord)  Calthorpe.  Transports 
also  came  pouring  in  from  the  Crimea,  disgorging  the  army 
for  which  we  had  been  so  long  waiting ;  and  the  picturesque 
harbor  of  Sukhum,  with  its  fort  and  village — which  had  been 
abandoned  by  its  Russian  occupants  when  I  first  saw  them, 
and  was  a  spot  of  silent  and  deserted  loveliness — was  now  a 
scene  of  life  and  bustle,  and  for  those  whose  fate  obliged 
them  to  live  on  shore,  of  no  little  discomfort. 


So  EPISODES  IN   A   LIFE   OF  ADVENTURE. 

Omer  Pasha  received  the  naib  with  every  mark  of  respect 
and  consideration.  He  was  evidently  a  personage  of  great 
authority  among  the  mountaineers,  and  was  very  proud  of 
an  expedition  he  had  just  made  against  the  Russians  in  the 
province  of  Karachai,  which  he  declared  was  a  great  success, 
but  which  some  Karachai  men,  whom  I  afterwards  saw,  pro- 
nounced a  failure.  He  was  invested  by  the  commander-in- 
chief  with  Turkish  official  rank  as  Governor  of  the  Western 
Caucasus,  and  in  that  capacity  could,  I  thought,  have  easily 
forwarded  me  in  safety  to  Schamyl.  Whether  as  a  bigoted 
Moslem  he  had  a  prejudice  against  allowing  me  to  penetrate 
where  no  foreigner  had  ever  been  before,  or  was  jealous  of  any 
direct  communication  with  Schamyl,  between  whom  and  the 
outside  world  he  was  at  that  time  the  sole  intermediary,  I 
know  not ;  but  he  made  objections  to  my  proposed  journey 
on  the  ground  of  the  lateness  of  the  season  and  the  inse- 
curity of  the  country,  which  neither  Omer  Pasha  nor  Mr. 
Longworth  used  any  arguments  to  overcome.  Had  they 
done  so,  I  do  not  think  he  would  have  persisted  in  his  oppo- 
sition ;  indeed  I  have  a  strong  suspicion  that  Omer  Pasha 
looked  upon  the  mission  with  disfavor,  believing,  as  did  Mr. 
Longworth,  that  it  would  be  rendered  unnecessary  by  a  suc- 
cessful advance  on  Tiflis,  from  which  point  Daghestan  and 
its  celebrated  chieftain  could  be  visited  without  difficulty  by 
Mr.  Longworth  himself,  as  well  as  by  Turkish  emissaries, 
none  of  whom  were  anxious  to  undertake  the  risks  of  a  mis- 
sion under  present  conditions.  I  was  therefore  finally  com- 
pelled to  reconcile  myself  to  the  disappointment,  and  gladly 
accepted  an  invitation  from  the  Duke  of  Newcastle  to  ac- 
company him  on  a  short  trip  into  the  interior.  Our  party 
was  a  large  one,  and  consisted  of  his  Grace,  Mr.  Calthorpe, 
Captain  Moore,  Mr.  Simpson  (the  well-known  and  popular 
artist  of  the  Illustrafed  Zondo?i  Hews),  Mr.  Longworth,  Mr. 
Sandison,  and  myself.  A  small  abandoned  Russian  post  on 
the  coast,  called  Vardan,  was  our  starting-point,  and  the  ut- 
terly unknown  and  unexplored  Circassian  province  of  Ubooch 


CRIMEAN   AND   CIRCASSIAN    EXPERIENCES.  8l 

the  scene  of  our  wanderings.  These  lasted  for  a  little  more 
than  a  week,  and  led  us  higli  into  the  mountains,  through  the 
most  romantic  scenery,  and  among  a  people  as  new  and  in- 
teresting to  us  as  we  must  have  been  to  them.  As,  however, 
I  published  a  record  of  our  adventures  and  observations  on 
that  occasion,*  I  will  not  allude  to  them  further  now.  On 
our  return  to  Sukhum  Kaleh  we  became  the  guests  of  Prince 
Michael  of  Abkhasia  —  of  which  province  Sukhum  is  the 
capital — who  organized  a  grand  shooting-party  at  one  of  his 
country  residences  in  honor  of  the  duke,  who  afterwards  re- 
turned to  England,  while  I,  finding  all  chance  of  diplomatic 
v/ork  of  the  kind  I  ambitioned  at  an  end,  for  the  present  at 
all  events,  attached  myself  to  the  Turkish  army,  with  which 
there  were  then  five  English  officers,  and  especially  to  Colonel 
Ballard  of  the  East  India  Company's  service,  who  commanded 
two  battalions  of  rifles,  and  was  an  officer  of  signal  capacity 
and  merit.  Under  him  I  did  some  amateur  soldiering,  and 
devoted  myself  to  chronicling  the  events  of  the  campaign  in 
the  columns  of  the  limes,  afterwards  republished  t — a  duty 
which  seemed  to  me  the  more  necessary,  as  there  was  no 
correspondent  of  any  paper  with  the  army  throughout,  and 
no  public  record  would  otherwise  have  existed  of  a  military 
episode  in  the  highest  degree  interesting  at  the  time,  and 
which,  had  it  been  successful,  would  have  been  pregnant 
with  the  most  important  political  results.  On  my  return  to 
Constantinople  I  received  a  reprimand  from  Lord  Stratford 
for  having  imposed  this  task  upon  myself  while  engaged  in  a 
quasi  diplomatic'  capacity ;  but  I  represented  that  I  consid- 
ered this  to  have  come  to  an  end  as  soon  as  the  diplomatic 
object  which  had  brought  me  to  Circassia  had  become  un- 

*  "  Patriots  and  Filibusters."  By  Laurence  Oliphant.  William  Black- 
wood &  Sons,  Edinburgh  and  London  :  iS6o. 

t  "  The  Transcaucasian  Campaign  of  the  Turkish  Army  under  Omer 
Pasha:  A  Personal  Narrative."  By  Laurence  Oliphant.  With  Maps 
and  Illustrations.  William  Blackwood  &  Sons,  Edinburgh  and  London  : 
1856. 

A* 


82  EPISODES    IN    A   LIFE    OF    ADVENTURE. 

attainable,  and  that  as  I  was  receiving  no  pay  at  the  time, 
my  pen  was  at  my  own  disposal :  at  the  same  time,  I  de- 
clined an  offer  which  he  kindly  made  me  that  I  should  re- 
main at  Constantinople  as  his  private  secretary. 

The  chief  incidents  of  the  campaign  were  the  battle  of  the 
Ingour ;  the  long  and  unaccountable  delay  at  Sugdidi,  the 
capital  of  Mingrelia,  which  followed  it ;  and  the  disastrous 
retreat  when  the  winter  rains  set  in,  and  the  news  reached 
us  of  the  fall  of  Kars.  In  regard  to  the  first,  the  ease  with 
which  we  overcame  the  Russian  army  sent  to  oppose  us 
proved  the  facility  with  which  we  might  have  advanced  on 
Tiflis,  and  rendered  it  all  the  more  difficult  to  explain  the 
delay  of  a  fortnight  which  had  occurred. 

The  ostensible  reason  for  our  inaction  after  the  battle  of 
the  Ingour  was  the  necessity  which  had  arisen  for  changing 
our  base  from  Sukhum  to  Redoute  Kaleh  for  commissariat 
and  other  transport.  It  was  to  this  latter  point  that  we  ul- 
timately retreated — not  before  the  enemy,  but  the  weather — 
losing  a  very  large  proportion  of  our  force  from  fever  and 
starvation,  harassed  night  and  day  by  Cossack  irregulars, 
drenched  to  the  skin  by  flooded  rivers  and  unceasing  tor- 
rents of  rain,  and  compelled  to  endure  privations  which,  in 
my  own  case,  brought  on  an  illness  that  I  thought  at  one 
time  would  abruptly  terminate  my  record  of  them.  As  it 
was,  I  was  barely  able,  on  the  2 2d  of  December — ^just  four 
months  after  I  had  landed  in  the  Crimea — to  scramble  on 
board  a  steamer  bound  for  Trebizond;  and  about  the  same 
day,  between  our  rear-guard  and  some  Cossack  skirmishers, 
the  last  shot  of  the  war  was  fired. 

I  would  say  one  word  finally  in  regard  to  the  peace  which 
followed,  and  which,  by  its  premature  conclusion,  prevented 
the  scene  of  our  late  campaign  again  becoming  the  theatre 
of  hostile  operations — this  time  to  be  undertaken  by  an  Eng- 
lish army,  supported  by  the  Turkish  contingent  and  Bashi- 
Bazouks  which  we  had  organized,  and  by  a  Turkish  force  of 
regulars  co-operating  with  us  on  the  Kuban.    This  plan  was 


CRIMEAN   AND   CIRCASSIAN    EXPERIENCES.  83 

abruptly  put  an  end  to  by  a  peace  which  practically  did 
nothing  towards  checking  Russia's  Asiatic  policy.  But  even 
then  she  would  have  been  powerless  to  resist  the  insertion 
of  a  clause  which  would  have  changed  the  whole  course  of 
events  in  the  East  since  that  period,  and  this  was  simply  for 
England  to  refuse  to  consent  to  the  reoccupation  by  Russia 
of  the  nine  or  ten  forts  which  we  had  taken  from  her,  and 
which  had  been  dismantled  on  the  eastern  or  Circassian 
shore  of  the  Black  Sea. 

When  we  consider  that  even  when,  by  the  Russian  occupa- 
tion of  the  coast  and  the  erection  of  these  forts,  the  Caucasus 
had  become  a  besieged  mountain,  its  brave  defenders,  unable 
to  obtain  arms  or  ammunition  from  without  except  with  the 
greatest  difficulty,  had  successfully  held  Russia  at  bay  for 
thirty  years,  it  is  evident  that  the  final  conquest  of  the  coun- 
try and  its  annexation  to  the  empire  would  have  been  a  work 
of  enormously  increased  cost  and  labor — if,  indeed,  it  could 
ever  have  been  achieved — had  the  whole  of  its  coast  remained 
in  the  hands  of  the  Circassians,  and  traffic  with  the  outside 
world  been  thus  unimpeded.  With  the  Russians  deprived 
of  a  Black  Sea  fleet,  and  their  access  to  Circassia  barred 
from  the  coast,  which  would  thus  have  been  open  to  all 
comers  to  supply  the  population  with  arms,  volunteers,  and 
material  aid,  the  absorption  of  this  wild  and  inaccessible 
mountain-range  into  the  empire  would  have  been  a  matter 
almost  of  impossibility;  it  would  have  remained  a  barrier 
permanently  separating  Russia  from  her  Transcaucasian 
provinces,  and  have  protected  Turkey  from  that  campaign 
in  1878  which  resulted  in  the  annexation  of  Kars  and  Ba- 
toum,  and  is  about  shortly  to  culminate  in  the  acquisition  of 
Armenia  and  the  ultimate  extension  of  the  Russian  frontier 
to  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean. 

The  neglect  of  this  simple  precaution  has  entailed  conse- 
quences which  have  had  a  predominant  influence  on  recent 
events  in  the  East.  The  Russian  government,  perceiving 
the  narrow  escape  they  had  made  from  a  termination  of  the 


64  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

war  which  would  have  checkmated  their  policy  in  Asiatic 
Turkey,  took  the  most  stringent  measures,  as  soon  as  peace 
was  concluded,  to  repair  the  weak  spot  in  their  armor  of  na- 
tional defence  and  aggression,  by  concentrating  their  whole 
energies  upon  the  final  subjugation  of  the  Circassians.  This, 
after  some  years  of  severe  fighting,  they  succeeded  in  achiev- 
ing; and  the  Moslem  highlanders,  refusing  to  part  with  an  in- 
dependence for  which  they  had  struggled  so  long  and  so  brave- 
ly, emigrated  en  masse  into  the  dominions  of  the  Sultan. 

The  influx  of  about  two  hundred  thousand  destitute  stran- 
gers, of  all  ages  and  both  sexes,  was  a  severe  strain  upon  a 
crippled  treasury;  and  large  numbers  were  settled  in  colonies 
in  Bulgaria  and  other  parts  of  the  empire,  there  to  shift  for 
themselves  as  best  they  could.  Lawless  by  nature,  cattle- 
lifters  by  training  and  instinct,  brave  and  inured  to  wars,  they 
found  themselves  planted  in  a  fertile  country,  surrounded 
by  a  race  in  close  affinity  with  the  one  they  most  detested, 
speaking  almost  the  same  language,  and  professing  the  same 
abhorred  religion.  The  Bulgarian  atrocities  followed,  as  a 
matter  of  course.  One  might  as  well  have  transplanted  a 
penniless  clan  of  Highlanders  in  the  middle  of  the  last  cen- 
tury into  Kent,  and  expected  them  to  live  peaceably  with 
their  neighbors,  as  have  colonized  Circassians  in  the  midst 
of  Bulgarians  and  have  expected  fraternization. 

The  philanthropic  British  public,  who  a  few  years  pre- 
viously had  held  meetings  of  sympathy  and  collected  funds 
for  the  relief  of  the  poor  expelled  Circassians,  now  demanded 
vengeance  against  Turkey  for  the  atrocities  committed  by 
them  upon  the  Bulgarians;  and  the  Russian  army  crossed 
the  Danube  to  execute  it,  while  the  British  public  calmly 
looked  on,  and  saw  every  object,  to  attain  which  they  had 
expended  so  much  blood  and  treasure  in  the  Crimea  twenty- 
four  years  before,  ruthlessly  sacrificed,  and  the  treaty  of  1856, 
which  had  resulted  from  it,  torn  up  and  scattered  to  the 
winds.  We  had  already  yielded  the  important  clause  pro- 
hibiting Russia  from  having  a  fleet  on  the  Black  Sea :  we 


CRIMEAN    AND   CIRCASSIAN    EXPERIENCES,  85 

then,  by  the  Treaty  of  Berlin,  gave  her  back  Bessarabia,  per- 
mitted her  to  annex  Kars,  with  the  harbor  of  Batoum,  and 
consented  to  the  unlimited  extension  of  her  influence  across 
the  Danube.  All  this  was  due,  in  the  first  instance,  to  our 
having  concluded  the  Crimean  war  without  finishing  the 
work  to  which  we  had  set  our  hand,  by  means  of  a  Trans- 
caucasian  campaign  with  a  British  army,  with  the  Circas- 
sians as  our  allies ;  and  in  the  second,  to  our  having  utterly 
ignored  the  strategical  value  and  importance  of  the  countr}' 
they  occupied,  and  to  our  having  taken  no  steps  at  the  con- 
clusion of  peace  to  secure  its  independence. 

How  little  apprehended  at  the  time  were  the  circumstances 
connected  with  the  fall  of  Kars — which  an  ignorant  public 
attributed  chiefly  to  neglect  on  the  part  of  Lord  Stratford — 
and  the  effect  which  our  Circassian  policy  was  destined  to 
produce  upon  subsequent  events  in  the  East,  may  be  gath- 
ered from  the  following  letter  from  the  ambassador  himself, 
dated  30th  April,  1856,  to  whom  I  had  sent  a  copy  of  my 
narrative  of  the  campaign  in  which  I  had  just  been  engaged, 
and  who  was  as  much  disappointed  at  the  sudden  and  inept 
conclusion  of  the  war  as  was  everybody  else  who  had  the 
interest  of  their  country  at  heart  and  understood  the  posi- 
tion of  affairs  at  the  time.     He  writes  : 

"  I  am  greatly  obliged  to  you  for  thinking  of  me  in  the  distribution  of 
your  Circassian  volume.  I  accept  the  copy  you  have  kindly  sent  me  as 
a  valuable  testimony  of  your  regard.  I  have  been  assailed  with  so  much 
reckless  self-seeking  malignity,  that  the  discernment  of  any  disinterested 
witness  having  a  just  hold  on  public  confidence  is  doubly  precious  to  me. 
Many  a  false  notion  respecting  the  fate  of  Kars  and  its  neighborhood  re- 
mains still  to  be  dispelled ;  but  I  rely  with  confidence  on  that  sense  of 
justice  and  love  of  truth  which  seldom  fail  our  countrymen  after  allowing 
themselves  the  indulgence  of  a  little  temporary  riot.  We  shall  be  delight- 
ed to  see  you  again  whenever  you  are  tempted  to  explore  these  regions  in 
a  more  complete  manner.  The  restoration  of  peace  gives  so  much  uncer- 
tainty to  our  plans  that  I  can  hardly  venture  to  look  forward  beyond  a 
month.  Yours  very  sincerely,  Stratford  de  R." 

The  misfortune  is,  that  whatever  may  be  "the  sense  of 


86  EPISODES    IN    A    LIFE    OF   ADVENTURE. 

justice  and  love  of  truth  of  our  countrymen,"  their  ignorance 
of  political  conditions  abroad,  especially  in  the  P^ast,  and 
their  effect  upon  British  interests,  remain  unchanged.  They 
were  unable  then  to  perceive  that  the  sure  way  to  prevent 
a  Russian  advance  upon  India  was  to  wrest  from  her  her 
Transcaucasian  provinces,  and  that  we  could  attack  her  far 
more  easily  and  effectively  in  Circassia  than  in  Afghanistan. 
Although  Ive  have  allowed  the  golden  opportunity  to  escape 
us,  strategically  this  proposition  still  holds  good— should  we 
unfortunately  ever  find  ourselves  forced  into  hostilities  with , 
the  power  which  is  ever  the  disturbing  element  in  Eastern 
affairs,  we  should  act,  not  on  the  defensive  at  Herat,  but  on 
the  offensive  at  Batoum  and  Sukhum  Kaleh,  and  endeavor 
to  occupy  the  country  between  the  Black  Sea  and  Caspian 
— thus  cutting  her  line  of  communication  to  the  East,  and 
forcing  her  to  concentrate  her  attention  on  her  own  fron- 
tiers instead  of  upon  ours.  To  do  this  effectively,  however, 
it  would  be  necessary  to  come  to  an  understanding  with 
Turkey,  both  in  regard  to  our  passage  into  the  Black  Sea, 
which  it  would  be  better  to  arrange  peaceably  than  by  force, 
and  in  regard  to  a  Turkish  military  contingent,  which,  with 
the  thousands  of  Circassians  who  would  flock  to  our  stand- 
ard at  the  prospect  of  returning  to  their  own  country,  would 
form  a  most  valuable  auxiliary  force  ;  while  the  restoration 
to  Turkey  of  the  Asiatic  provinces  recently  annexed  by  Rus- 
sia, with  possibly  a  further  extension  of  territory  towards 
the  Caspian,  would  in  some  measure  repay  her  for  the  sac- 
rifices to  which  she  is  being  now  subjected  in  Europe.  It 
was  universally  admitted  at  the  close  of  the  Crimean  war, 
by  those  who  were  engaged  in  it  and  had  studied  the  sub- 
ject, that  the  true  theatre  of  operations  from  the  first  should 
have  been  the  Transcaucasus.  The  proof  of  it  was  that  we 
were  making  preparations  to  convey  an  army  there  when 
peace  was  made.  Is  it  possible  that  the  lesson  we  learned 
then  should  be  so  soon  forgotten  ?" 


CHAPTER  VI. 

ADVENTURES    IN    CENTRAL   AMERICA. 

I  HAD  not  been  many  months  back  from  Circassia,  and, 
Micawber-like,  was  waiting  for  something  to  turn  up — not 
anxiously,  however,  for  the  London  season  of  1856  was  not 
without  its  attractions — when,  towards  the  close  of  it,  I  found 
myself  once  more  starting  for  Liverpool  on  another  trip 
across  the  Atlantic,  my  fellow-traveller  on  this  occasion 
being  my  much-valued  and  lamented  friend  Mr.  Delane  of 
the  Times,  to  whom  I  was  able  to  act  as  cicerone  on  our  ar- 
rival at  New  York,  where  we  underwent  a  round  of  festivi- 
ties and  enjoyed  an  amount  of  hospitality  which,  I  used  to 
think  afterwards  on  perusing  the  columns  of  the  Thunderer, 
had  not  been  altogether  without  their  effect.  The  pressure 
of  my  companion's  editorial  duties  unfortunately  obliged  us 
to  part  all  too  soon — he  to  return  to  England,  and  I  to  visit 
each  one  of  the  British  North  American  colonies  in  turn, 
on  some  business  with  which  I  had  been  intrusted ;  but  I 
cannot  neglect  this  opportunity  of  paying  the  tribute  of  a 
grateful  memory  to  one  of  the  best  and  truest  men  I  have 
ever  known. 

My  intimacy  with  Delane  extended  over  nearly  twenty 
years,  during  which  I  had  frequent  business  as  well  as  un- 
interrupted private  relations  with  him.  I  had  thus  abun- 
dant opportunities  of  testing  alike  the  power  of  his  intellect 
and  the  warmth  of  his  affections,  and  found  in  him  a  man 
who,  with  everything  to  spoil  him,  was  never  spoiled — who 
never  allowed  his  social  or  public  position  to  paralyze  in 
the  slightest  degree  that  generosity  of  nature  which  was 


88  EPISODES    IN    A    LIFE    OF    ADVENTURE. 

constantly  prompting  him  to  extend  his  strong  arm  to  help 
those  in  trouble,  and  to  perform  acts  of  kindness  which  were 
never  known  except  to  the  recipients  of  them.  As  an  in- 
stance, I  remember  on  one  occasion  bringing  to  his  notice 
the  case  of  a  widow  of  an  officer  who  had  been  severely 
wounded  in  the  Crimea,  who  was  refused  her  pension  be- 
cause, although  it  was  not  denied  that  he  died  of  his  wound, 
he  lingered  a  day  or  two  beyond  the  allotted  time  within 
which  he  ought  to  have  succumbed,  the  plea  of  the  War 
Office  being  that  an  awkward  question  might  be  asked  in 
the  House  of  Commons  if  an  exception  were  made  in  his 
favor.  On  my  showing  him  the  correspondence,  Delane 
immediately  took  up  the  cudgels  for  the  widow,  and  a  lead- 
ing article  appeared  in  the  old  slashing  style,  which  con- 
cluded with  the  following  slinging  epigram,  in  allusion  to 
the  possibility  of  an  objection  being  taken  in  Parliament: 
"  The  House  of  Commons  is  never  stingy,  except  when  it 
suspects  a  job  ;  the  War  Office  is  always  stingy,  except  when 
it  commits  one."  But  the  question  was  never  allowed  to 
come  before  the  House;  for,  two  days  after  the  appearance 
of  this  article,  the  widow  got  her  pension. 

We  made  at  New  York  the  acquaintance  of  all  the  lead- 
ing members  of  the  press  of  that  city  at  an  entertainment 
given  by  them  to  Mr.  Delane  ;  and  the  occasion  was  doubly 
interesting,  because  the  presidential  election  was  going  on 
at  the  time,  which  resulted  in  Buchanan  being  sent  to  the 
White  House  at  Washington.  How  little  did  any  of  us,  in 
the  political  discussions  in  which  we  took  part,  foresee  how 
pregnant  with  disastrous  results  that  presidentship  was  des- 
tined to  be — that  it  would  involve  the  most  bloody  civil 
war  of  modern  times,  and  that  nearly  thirty  years  would 
elapse  before  a  Democratic  administration  would  again  be 
formed  in  the  United  States  !  Among  the  eminent  men 
whose  acquaintance  we  made,  and  whom  it  is  interesting  to 
recall  to  memory— for  they  have  all,  I  think,  passed  away— 
were  General  Scott,  then  commander-in-chief  of  the  army ; 


ADVENTURES    IN    CENTRAL   AMERICA.  89 

Commodore   Perry;  Mr.  Grinnell,  who  fitted  out  the  first 
American  Arctic  expedition  ;   and  Bancroft,  the  historian. 
We  fraternized  much  with  a  most  agreeable  group  of  South- 
erners, from  whom  I  was  ghad  to  accept  invitations  to  visit 
them  on  their  plantations — an  experience  I  the  less  regret, 
as  I  was  thus  able  to  form  an  independent  judgment  of  the 
practical  working  of  the  "peculiar  institution"  which  was 
destined  so  soon  to  be  abolished  ;  to  see  the  South  in  the 
palmy  days  of  its  prosperity,  under  conditions  which  can 
never  occur  again  ;  and  to  enjoy  a  hospitality  which  pos- 
sessed a  charm  of  its  own,  however  much  one  might  regret 
the  surroundings  amid  which  it  was  exercised,  or  condemn 
the  abuses  to  which  the  system  of  slavery  gave  rise,     I  put 
the  result  of  my  observations  on  record  at  the  time  in  an 
article    in   Blackwood's   Magazine;    and   from  what   I   saw 
and  heard,  it  was  not  difficult  to  predict  in  it  the  cataclysm 
which  took  place  four  years  later,  though  the  idea  of  the 
South  resorting  to  violence  was  scouted  in  the  North  ;  and 
when,  upon  more  than  one  occasion,  I  ventured  to  suggest 
the  possibility  to  Republicans,  I  was  invariably  met  by  the 
reply  that  I  had  not  been  long  enough  in  the  country  to  un- 
derstand the  temper  of  the  people,  and  attached  an  impor- 
tance it  did  not  deserve  to  Southern  "  bounce."    When,  three 
months  after  the  close  of  the  war,  I  again  traversed  the  same 
states  which  I  was  now  visiting  during  a  period  of  peace 
and   plenty,  the  contrast  was   heartrending.     Homesteads 
which  then  were  rich  and  flourishing  were  now  masses  of 
charred  ruins  ;  whole  towns  had  been  swept  away.     This, 
I  remember,  was  conspicuously  the  case  at  Atlanta,  where 
only  a  few  wooden  shanties — where  I  found  it  very  difficult 
to  get  accommodation  for  the  night — indicated  the  site  of 
the  former  town.     It  is  now  again  a  flourishing  city.     Ruin 
and  devastation  marked  the  track  of  invading  armies  over 
vast  tracts  of  country,  and  testified  alike  to  the  severity  of 
the  struggle  and  the  obstinacy  of  the  resistance.     In  this 
respect  the  country  exhibited  a  very  striking  contrast  to 


go  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE    OF    ADVENTURE. 

France  after  the  German  campaign.  As  it  was  my  fortune 
to  accompany  the  German  armies  through  a  great  part  of 
the  war,  and  to  march  with  them  through  several  provinces 
of  France,  I  could  compare  the  conditions  of  the  theatre  of 
military  operations  with  that  of  the  Southern  States  imme- 
diately after  the  war,  and  judge  of  the  nature  of  the  conflict 
by  the  traces  which  it  left.  In  the  latter  case,  one  may  say 
that,  except  immediately  round  Paris  and  in  one  or  two 
isolated  localities  like  Chateaudun,  it  left  no  traces  at  all, 
and  enabled  one  to  estimate  at  its  proper  value,  even  if 
one  had  not  been  present  at  the  battles,  the  flimsy  nature 
of  the  resistance  which  had  been  offered. 

Perhaps  one  of  the  best  evidences  of  the  different  char- 
acter of  the  fighting  which  took  place  between  the  Northern 
and  Southern  armies  in  America,  and  that  which  occurred 
in  France,  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the  Franco-German 
battles  were  essentially  artillery  combats  ;  and  that,  with  the 
exception  of  one  or  two  of  the  earlier  battles,  such  as  Spiche- 
ren  and  Gravelotte,  the  opposing  forces  never  came  to  close 
quarters  at  all.  In  fact,  during  the  Loire  campaign,  which 
I  made  with  the  Grand  Duke  of  Mecklenburg,  both  sides 
played  at  such  long  bowls  that  it  was  very  difficult,  even  with 
the  aid  of  a  field-glass,  to  see  a  Frenchman  ;  whereas,  toW' 
ards  the  close  of  the  American  war,  both  sides  almost  aban. 
doned  artillery  as  a  useless  arm,  and  a  source  of  weakness 
rather  than  of  strength,  when  men,  not  to  be  deterred  by 
noise,  rushed  in  on  the  guns.  Modern  inventions  and  ma- 
chine-guns may  make  this  more  difficult,  but  certainly  the 
artillery  of  even  fifteen  years  ago,  mitrailleuse  included,  re- 
quired an  amount  of  protection  when  opposed  by  a  resolute 
foe  which  scarcely  compensated  for  the  relatively  small  ex- 
tent of  injury  it  could  inflict;  and  I  have  often  thought  that 
if  the  German  armies  had  found  themselves  confronted  with 
the  comparatively  raw  and  untrained  levies  of  the  American 
rebellion,  they  would  have  discovered  that  there  is  another 
art  of  war  altogether  from  that  in  which  they  have  perfected 


ADVENTURES    IN   CENTRAL   AMERICA.  91 

themselves — of  which  they  have  had  as  yet  no  experience — 
and  which  consists  in  an  invincible  determination  to  get  at 
close  quarters  with  the  enemy  as  quickly  as  possible,  and,  if 
necessary,  to  die  there  rather  than  come  away. 

In  no  Southern  city,  perhaps,  was  the  stress  of  war  more 
severely  felt  than  in  New  Orleans,  though  it  was  never  de- 
vastated by  shot  and  shell.  At  the  time  of  my  first  visit  in 
the  winter  of  1856-57,  it  was  socially  the  most  delightful  city 
in  the  Union ;  and  as  I  was  fortunate  in  the  possession  of 
many  friends,  and  of  an  age  to  appreciate  gayety,  my  stay 
there  was  one  of  unqualified  enjoyment.  In  the  autumn  of 
1865  it  was  the  saddest  place  I  ever  entered,  sadder  to  me, 
perhaps,  from  the  contrast  as  I  had  known  it  in  happier  days. 
Some  of  my  friends  had  been  killed,  others  were  totally 
ruined,  others  in  self-imposed  exile.  A  new  and  not  a  pleas- 
ant class  had  taken  their  place,  trade  was  at  a  standstill,  en- 
terprise of  all  sorts  was  languishing,  and  a  feeling  of  gloom 
and  despondency  reigned  supreme.  My  last  visit  there  was 
made  during  the  last  days  of  188 1,  when  it  seemed  like  a 
city  rising  from  the  dead  :  hope  and  joy  beamed  from  every 
countenance;  and  though,  after  the  lapse  of  so  many  years, 
I  scarcely  found  a  soul  I  knew,  there  was  a  life  and  anima- 
tion which  augured  well  for  the  recovery  of  the  place  from 
its  long  torpor.  Still  it  has  undergone  a  change  which  will 
prevent  it  ever  becoming  the  New  Orleans  I  first  remember. 
Then  its  charm  lay  in  its  French-Creole  society — an  element 
which  has  given  way  to  the  inroad  from  the  North — and,  if 
I  may  venture  to  confess  it,  in  a  certain  lawlessness,  which 
made  it  what,  in  local  parlance,  was  called  the  "  jumping-off 
place  "  for  harebrained  expeditions  of  a  filibustering  charac- 
ter to  Cuba,  Central  America,  or  any  other  tempting  locality. 
Among  the  most  hospitable  houses  on  the  occasion  of  my 
first  visit  was  that  of  Mr.  Pierre  Soule,  formerly  United  States 
Minister  to  Madrid,  and  whose  son — at  whose  wedding  I 
assisted — fought  a  duel  with  the  Duke  of  Alva,  which  made 
some  noise  at  the  time.     At  this  juncture  Walker  was  en- 


92  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

deavoring  to  establish  himself  as  President  of  Nicaragua, 
and  engaged  in  a  war  with  the  Costa-Ricans,  who  were  be- 
ing aided  in  their  resistance  to  his  attempt  by  money  and 
men  supplied  by  Commodore  Vanderbilt,  with  whom  Walker 
had  foolishly  quarrelled  upon  the  subject  of  the  transit  route 
through  Nicaragua,  of  which  the  American  capitalist  desired 
to  retain  the  control.  Mr.  Soule  was  acting  in  New  Orleans 
as  Walker's  agent,  and  he  explained  to  me  that  Walker's  in- 
tention was  not,  as  erroneously  supposed  by  the  British  gov- 
ernment, to  conquer  the  small  republics  of  Central  America, 
with  the  view  of  annexing  them  to  the  United  States,  but  for 
the  purpose  of  welding  them  into  a  new  Anglo-Saxon  re- 
public— a  project  which  it  seemed  to  me,  though  it  was  un- 
dertaken by  a  single  man,  was  not  more  immoral  than  sim- 
ilar enterprises  are  when  undertaken  by  governments,  and 
one  which  was  calculated  to  benefit  not  only  the  Central 
American  States  themselves,  but  the  cause  of  civilization 
generally.  Subsequent  observation  confirmed  me  in  this 
view,  which  has  been  further  illustrated  by  the  history  of  the 
country  during  the  thirty  years  which  have  elapsed  since 
this  time,  when  it  has  been  the  prey  to  constant  revolutions, 
while  it  has  made  absolutely  no  advance  in  the  arts  of 
peace.  I  therefore  listened  with  a  favorable  ear  to  Mr. 
Soule's  offer  of  a  free  passage  to  Nicaragua  in  a  ship  convey- 
ing a  reinforcement  of  three  hundred  men  to  Walker's  army, 
and  of  carrying  strong  personal  recommendations  to  that 
noted  filibuster,  who  was  requested  by  Mr.  Soule  to  explain 
the  political  situation  to  me,  in  the  hope  that  on  my  return 
to  England  I  might  induce  the  British  government  to  regard 
his  operations  with  a  more  favorable  eye  than  they  had 
hitherto  done.  The  fact  that  if  I  succeeded  I  was  to  be  al- 
lowed to  take  my  pick  out  of  a  list  of  confiscated  haciendas, 
or  estates,  certainly  did  not  influence  my  decision  to  go, 
though  it  may  possibly  have  acted  as  a  gentle  stimulant  ; 
but  I  remember  at  the  time  having  some  doubts  on  the  sub- 
ject from  a  moral  point  of  view.     Had  I  been  brought  up 


ADVENTURES    IN    CENTRAL   AMERICA.  93 

in  the  city,  or  been  familiar  \Yith  the  processes  of  promoting 
joint-stock  companies,  these  probably  would  not  have  oc- 
curred to  me.  As  it  was,  I  remember  spending  Christmas- 
day  in  high  spirits  at  the  novelty  of  the  adventure  upon  which 
I  was  entering;  and  here  I  may  remark,  as  an  illustration 
of  the  rapidity  with  which,  in  my  capacity  of  a  moss-gather- 
ing stone,  I  was  rolling  about  the  world,  that  my  Christmas- 
days  during  these  years  were  passed  in  very  varied  localities. 

On  Christmas-day,  1854,  I  was  in  Quebec;  on  the  same 
day,  1855, 1  was  in  Trebizond  ;  in  1856,  at  New  Orleans;  and 
in  1857,  in  the  Canton  River. 

It  was  on  the  last  day  of  the  year  that  the  good  ship  Texas 
cleared  out  of  New  Orleans  with  three  hundred  emigrants 
on  board.  At  least  we  called  ourselves  emigrants — a  mis- 
nomer which  did  not  prevent  the  civic  authorities,  with  the 
city  marshal  at  their  head,  trying  to  stop  us ;  but  we  had 
the  sympathies  of  the  populace  with  us,  and  under  their  Eegis 
laughed  the  law  to  scorn.  It  would  have  been  quite  clear 
to  the  most  simple-minded  observer  what  kind  of  emigrants 
we  were  the  day  after  we  got  out  to  sea  and  the  men  were 
put  through  their  squad-drill  on  deck.  There  were  English- 
men who  had  been  private  soldiers  in  the  Crimea,  Poles  who 
had  fouglit  in  the  last  Polish  insurrection,  Hungarians  who 
had  fought  under  Kossuth,  Italians  who  had  struggled  through 
the  revolutions  of  '48,  Western  "  boys  "  who  had  just  had  six 
months'  fighting  in  Kansas,  while  of  the  "  balance  "  the  ma- 
jority had  been  in  one  or  other  of  the  Lopez  expeditions  to 
Cuba.  Many  could  exhibit  bullet-wounds  and  sword-cuts, 
and  scars  from  manacles,  which  they  considered  no  less 
honorable  —  notwithstanding  all  which,  the  strictest  order 
prevailed.  No  arms  were  allowed  to  be  carried.  There 
were  always  two  officers-of-the-day  who  walked  about  with 
swords  buckled  over  their  shooting-jackets,  and  sixteen  men 
told  off  as  a  guard  to  maintain  discipline.  Alas  !  the  good 
behavior  and  fine  fighting  qualities  of  these  amiable  emi- 
grants were  destined  to  be  of  no  avail  ;  for  on  our  arrival  at 


94  EPISODES   IN   A   LIFE   OF    ADVENTURE. 

the  mouth  of  the  San  Juan  River  we  found  a  British  squadron 
lying  at  anchor  to  keep  the  peace,  and  the  steamer  by  which 
we  hoped  to  ascend  the  river  in  the  hands  of  our  enemies, 
the  Costa-Ricans.     Our  first  feeling  was  that  we  were  not 
to  be  deterred  by  such  trifles.     The  men  were  all  drawn  up 
below,  each  had  received  his  rifle,  revolver,  and  bowie,  with 
the  necessary  ammunition,  and  all  the  arrangements  were 
made  for  cutting  out  our  prize,  which  was  lying  about  three 
hundred  yards  off,  in  the  night.     As  a  compliment,  which  I 
could  not  refuse  but  did  not  appreciate,  I  was  given  com- 
mand of  a  boat  (I  think  it  was  the  dingy),  and  I  costumed 
myself  accordingly.     Just  before  sunset  we  observed  to  our 
dismay  a  British  man-of-war's  boat  pulling  towards  us;  and 
a   moment  later  Captain  Cockburn,  of  Her  Majesty's  ship 
Cossack,  was  in  the  captain's  cabin,  making  most  indiscreet 
inquiries  as  to  the  kind  of  emigrants  we  were.     It  did  not 
require  long  to  satisfy  him  ;  and  as  I  incautiously  hazarded 
a  remark  which  betrayed  my  nationality,  I  was  incontinently 
ordered  into  his  boat  as   a  British  subject,  being  where  a 
British  subject  had  no  right  to  be.    As  he  further  announced 
that  he  was  about  to  moor  his  ship  in  such  a  position  as 
would  enable  him,  should  fighting  occur  in  the  course  of  the 
night,  to  fire  into  both  combatants  with  entire  impartiality,  I 
the  less  regretted  this  abrupt  parting  from  my  late  compan- 
ions, the  more  especially  as,  on  asking  him  who  commanded 
the  squadron,  I  found  it  was  a  distant  cousin.     This   an- 
nouncement on  my  part  was  received  with  some  incredulity, 
and  I  was  taken  on  board  the  Orioji,  an  eighty-gun  ship, 
carrying  the  flag  of  Admiral  Erskine,  to  test  its  veracity, 
while  Captain  Cockburn  made  his  report  of  the  Texas  and 
her  passengers.     As  soon  as  the  admiral  recovered  from  his 
amazement  at  my  appearance,  he  most  kindly  made  me  his 
guest ;  and  I  spent  a  very  agreeable  time  for  some  days, 
watching  the  "emigrants"  disconsolately  pacing  the  deck, 
for  the  Costa-Ricans  gave  them  the  slip  in  the  night  and 
went  up  the  river,  and  their  opponents  found  their  occupa- 


ADVENTURES    IN    CENTRAL    AMERICA.  95 

tion  gone.  The  question  they  now  had  to  consider  was  how 
to  get  to  Walker.  Few  ever  succeeded  in  doing  so  ;  and  the 
non-arrival  of  this  reinforcement  was  the  immediate  cause 
of  the  disaster  which  obliged  "  the  blue-eyed  man  of  destiny," 
as  his  friends  called  him,  not  long  after  to  escape  from  the 
country.  Poor  Walker !  he  owed  all  his  misfortunes,  and  finally 
his  own  untimely  end,  to  British  interference  ;  for  on  his  return 
to  Central  America,  where  he  intended  to  make  Honduras  the 
base  of  his  operations,  he  was  captured  at  Truxillo  by  Cap- 
tain (now  Sir  Nowell)  Salmon,  and  handed  over  to  the  Hon- 
duras government,  who  incontinently  hung  him.  This  was 
the  usual  fate  which  followed  failure  in  this  country;  and 
those  who  fought  in  it  knew  they  were  doing  so  with  a  rope 
round  their  necks — which  doubtless  improved  their  fighting 
qualities.  1  did  not  know,  however,  until  my  return  to  Eng- 
land, that  rumor  had  accredited  me  with  so  tragic  an  end, 
when,  at  the  first  party  I  went  to,  my  partner,  a  very  charm- 
ing young  person,  whom  I  was  very  glad  to  see  again  after  my 
various  adventures,  put  out  two  fingers  by  way  of  greeting, 
raised  her  eyebrows  with  an  air  of  mild  surprise,  and  said,  in 
the  most  silvery  and  unmoved  voice,  "Oh,  how  d'ye  do.''  I 
thought  you  were  hung !"  I  think  it  was  rather  a  disap- 
pointment to  her  that  I  was  not.  There  is  a  novelty  in  the 
sensation  of  an  old  and  esteemed  dancing -partner  being 
hanged,  and  it  forms  a  pleasing  topic  of  conversation  with 
the  other  ones.  Eight  years  after  this  escapade,  Admiral 
Erskine  and  I  used  to  meet  under  very  different  circum- 
stances :  he  was  member  for  the  county  of  Stirling,  and  I  for 
the  Stirling  burghs,  and  he  used  laughingly  to  maintain  that 
he  had  rescued  me  from  a  gang  of  desperadoes  and  restored 
me  to  respectable  society — a  view  which  I  attribute  to  nar- 
row prejudice  ;  for,  if  you  come  to  sheer  respectability,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  in  the  mind  of  any  one  who  has  tried  both 
that  the  life  of  a  filibuster  is  infinitely  superior  in  its  aims 
and  methods  to  that  of  a  politician:  a  conclusion  which  was 
forcibly  impressed  upon  my  mind  by  one  of  my  earliest  ex- 


96  EPISODES  Oi  A  UFE  OF  AJSTEISTURE. 

perieDces  in  the  House  of  Commons,  urben  a  Reform  Bill 
was  passed  by  the  Conservatives,  vhich  they  would  vehe- 
mently have  o|^)osed  had  it  been  brought  in  by  the  Liberals, 
and  viiidi  the  latter,  in  defiance  of  their  political  convictions, 
opposed  because  it  was  bnxight  in  by  the  Conservatives — a 
piece  of  political  filibu^eiing  on  the  one  side  as  immoral,  to 
my  nnscyhisficated  mind,  as  the  tactics  by  which  it  was  met 
on  the  ether,  but  which,  by  voting  steadily  against  the  party 
I  lad  the  honor  to  belong,  I  contributed  my  mite 
r*  -ild  not  take  me  long  after  this  to  discover 
:  jt  out  for  a  party  man,  and  I  entered  into 
tern  Hundreds. 

er  atmosphere  of  Greytown:  there  was 

re,  as  there  was  absolutely  nothing 

-^  -fizo  town ;  so  I  took  leave  of 

s  and  embarked  in  a  passing 

i  the  isthmus  to  Panama, 

-  :  3  progress,  which  had  for 

t  :  V  -  t  town  to  the  tender  merdes  of  the 

"ne  that  if  one  wanted  to  con- 

t:        -  the  first  part  of  the  isth- 

n         :    r  ;iL     Yet,  so  hi  as  I  am 

a-  1  :r,  even  to  this  day,  been  surveyed. 

"^  _   :  I  would  make  the  attempt,  and, 

r  Bayanos  River  within  seven- 
It  is  true  that  I  was  con- 
i:::l:  _i    :.____.                       !:*.  the  hostility  of  Darien 
Indians — who  obstn:'. .      t  7     :               be  ei^lorer  by  sboot- 
'r  '   :!e  poisoned  ar:                               7-  blow-pipes — pre- 
niy  traverang                                       one  ^aoe  there 
3SS,  acre  i                                              :n  the  habit 
'  cir  C2.- :  :     :       ,                           -,nsieur  Les- 
■  iing  to  make  the                       :  side  of  the 
iDraiteting  the  :                          :     2  obsta- 
;Jver — idiidi  -d  with 


ADTEXTCTLES    IX   CiiMK-AI-    A.VTSICA-  97 


ttrferable  ce 
complert  i  — 
betiree-      - 
tbes:  : 
pc: 
tor       _ 

who.  on  dii : 
to  me  to  er: 


CLzrdi  to  w: 


-  —  :  a  caan^  oesuac. 

.:::  :      :       'e— in  ^iedgc  of  s 

th-:  :  Aeiewjlmicz 

prcrar.v  :e  .  -^isoahii 


to  assist^  c: 
place. 

I  err 
db 
he 
m; 
qu.:.       -    , 


place 


98  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

should  receive  from  a  bishop !  My  spiritual  tempter  was 
rather  disappointed  to  learn  that  I  was  not  a  Romanist,  as 
then  I  should  have  been  supported  by  the  high  moral  con- 
sciousness that  I  was  fighting  in  the  cause  of  the  Church ; 
and  was  obliged  to  rest  satisfied  with  my  assurances  that  I 
was  free  from  theological  bigotry  of  any  kind.  Men,  he  said, 
derived  great  spiritual  benefit  by  fighting  on  the  right  side, 
even  though,  to  begin  with,  the  motives  by  which  they  were 
actuated  were  low  ones.  This  naturally  suggested  the  ques- 
tion, What  temporal  advantage  was  to  accrue  to  me  for  the 
service  I  was  rendering  the  Church  ?  He  was  not  in  a  posi- 
tion, he  replied,  to  make  me  any  definite  promises  in  this  re- 
spect;  but  I  might  count  on  high  office,  probably  the  head 
of  the  War  Department,  if  I  developed  strong  clerical  sym- 
pathies. What  a  vista  of  conquest  and  greatness  did  this 
suggestion  open  to  my  youthful  and  ardent  imagination  !  To 
be  War  Minister  of  Honduras  at  seven  or  eight  and  twenty, 
with  Costa  Rica,  Guatemala,  San  Salvador,  and  Nicaragua 
all  wailing  to  be  gobbled  up.  I  would  out-Walker  Walker. 
Of  course  we  did  not  get  to  this  climax  till  after  several  days 
of  secret  confabulation,  for  I  had  to  inspire  the  holy  father 
with  confidence.  Meantime  my  moral  sense  was  getting 
more  and  more  confused.  Decidedly  there  was  something 
in  the  atmosphere  of  Central  America  which  had  a  tendency 
to  mix  things  up.  Possibly  it  is  still  haunted  by  the  shades 
of  Pizarro  and  Kidd  and  Morgan,  and  freebooting  and  buc- 
caneering influences  hang  round  the  lovely  land  to  tempt  the 
lonely  wanderer  disgusted  with  the  prosaic  tendencies  of 
modern  civilization.  I  went  so  far  as  to  learn  a  secret  sign 
from  this  pious  conspirator,  so  that  on  my  return  with  my 
twenty  men  I  should  know  how  to  find  a  friend  in  case  of 
need.  After  all,  he  was  only  proposing  to  me  to  do  on  a 
small  scale  in  Honduras  what  a  clerical  deputation  five 
years  afterwards  proposed  to  the  brother  of  the  Emperor  of 
Austria  to  do  in  Mexico  on  a  larger  one,  and  which  that  un- 
happy prince  accepted  as  a  religious  duty. 


ADVENTURES    IN   CENTRAL   AMERICA.  99 

I  had  a  long  talk  with  the  Emperor  Maximilian  at  Trieste 
just  before  he  started  for  Mexico,  and  gave  him  the  benefit 
of  some  of  my  Central  American  experiences  ;  for  when  I 
heard  the  noble  and  lofty  ambitions  by  which  his  soul  was 
fired,  I  foresaw  the  bitter  disappointment  in  store  for  him, 
though  I  could  not  anticipate  his  tragic  end. 

"It  is  the  paradise  of  adventurers,  sir,"  I  remember  say- 
ing, "but  not  a  country  for  any  man  to  go  to  who  has  a 
position  to  lose  or  a  conscience  to  obey."  In  my  small 
way  I  felt,  after  I  had  escaped  from  the  influence  of  ray 
ghostly  tempter,  that  I  had  both,  and  dismissed  him  and 
his  proposals  from  my  mind.  I  watched,  however,  the  fort- 
unes of  Honduras  in  the  papers ;  and  sure  enough,  not 
many  months  elapsed  before  the  government  was  over- 
thrown by  a  peaceful  revolution,  as  the  father  had  predicted, 
and  a  new  president  and  administration  were  installed  in 
its  place,  where  the  name  of  the  priest  himself  figured  more 
than  once  as  an  important  character  in  the  politics  of  the 
country. 

Almost  immediately  on  my  arrival  in  England,  a  dissolu- 
tion of  Parliament,  followed  by  a  general  election,  took  place, 
and  I  was  actively  engaged  for  a  fortnight  endeavoring  to  fili- 
buster a  constituency.  I  failed  in  the  attempt;  but  I  was 
more  than  consoled  by  the  fact  that  during  the  contest  a 
special  embassy  to  China  was  decided  upon,  with  Lord  Elgin 
as  ambassador,  who  offered,  if  I  did  not  get  into  Parliament, 
to  take  me  out  with  him  as  his  secretary.  As  special  em- 
bassies to  China  are  rarer  events  than  general  elections,  I 
accepted  my  defeat  with  a  light  heart,  more  especially  as  I 
knew  I  had  made  the  seat  sure  for  next  time,  and  a  month 
afterwards  was  steaming  down  the  Bay  of  Biscay  on  my  way 
to  far  Cathay,  with  my  dreams  of  empire  in  Central  America 
relegated  to  the  limbo  of  the  past. 

At  Singapore  we  transferred  ourselves  from  the  P.  &  O. 
Company's  steamer,  in  which  we  had  made  the  journey  thus 
far,  to  H.M.S.  Shannon,  a  fifty -gun  frigate  commanded  by 


lOO  EPISODES    IN    A   LIFE   OF    ADVENTURE. 

Sir  William  Peel.  She  was  a  magnificent  specimen  of  the 
naval  architecture  of  those  clays ;  and  her  captain,  who  was 
justly  proud  of  her,  was,  I  think,  not  altogether  satisfied  with 
the  prospect,  during  war-time,  of  the  peaceful  duty  of  carry- 
ing about  an  ambassador,  which  had  been  allotted  to  him. 
Poor  fellow !  his  fighting  propensities  were  destined  all  too 
soon  to  be  gratified,  and  the  brilliant  professional  career 
which  seemed  in  store  for  him  to  be  abruptly  and  fatally 
terminated.  I  have  never  met  a  naval  officer  who  so  com- 
'  pletely  realized  one's  bcaic  ideal  of  a  sailor,  or  in  whom  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  and  devotion  to  his  profession  was 
combined  with  such  a  sound  judgment,  such  gentle  and  amia- 
ble qualities,  and  such  chivalrous  daring.  In  some  points 
there  was  a  marked  similarity  in  his  character  to  that  of 
General  Gordon.  There  was  the  same  high  principle,  stern 
sense  of  duty,  lofty  aspiration  of  aim,  unbounded  self-reliance, 
and  intolerance  of  what  seemed  unworthy  or  ignoble,  whether 
in  governments  or  individuals. 

It  was  at  Galle  that  we  heard  the  first  news  of  the  out- 
break of  the  Indian  mutiny ;  but  the  appalling  details  reached 
us  at  Singapore,  and  determined  Lord  Elgin,  on  his  own  re- 
sponsibility, to  divert  the  destination  of  the  China  expedi- 
tionary force  from  Hong  Kong  to  Calcutta.  Meantime  we 
proceeded  ourselves  to  the  former  place ;  and  after  staying 
there  a  few  weeks  to  transact  some  necessary  business,  Lord 
Elgin  determined  to  go  himself  to  Calcutta,  with  the  view  of 
affording  Lord  Canning  all  the  moral  support  in  his  power. 
On  our  return  to  Singapore  in  company  with  H.M.S.  T'mr/, 
commanded  by  Captain  Sotheby,  we  found  the  Ninetieth 
Regiment,  together  with  some  other  troops,  waiting  for  trans- 
port to  Calcutta.  These  were  embarked  in  the  two  ships, 
and  we  proceeded  with  them  to  India. 

The  transport  which  had  conveyed  the  Ninetieth  Regiment 
had  been  wrecked  in  the  Straits  of  Sunda,  and  one  young  of- 
ficer had  particularly  distinguished  himself  in  the  confusion 
attendant  upon  getting  the  men  safely  ashore  and  putting 


ADVENTURES    IN   CENTRAL   AMERICA.  10 1 

them  under  canvas.  This  was  the  junior  captain  ;  and  as  he 
took  passage  with  us  in  the  Shannon^  I  was  so  fortunate  as 
to  make  his  acquaintance.  I  little  suspected,  however,  when 
we  parted  at  Calcutta,  that  the  next  time  I  was  destined  to 
meet  him  it  would  be  as  Lord  Wolseley. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

CALCUTTA   DURING   THE   MUTINY,  AND   CHINA   DURING   THE 
WAR    1857-1859. 

The  extraordinary  sensation  produced  by  our  arrival  at 
Calcutta,  and  the  relief  which  the  appearance  of  a  large  body 
of  British  troops  at  so  critical  a  juncture  afforded  the  foreign 
population,  I  alluded  to  in  a  book  published  two  years  later  ;* 
but  as  this  narrative  had  reference  more  especially  to  war 
and  diplomacy  in  China,  I  may  be  permitted  to  recall  the 
impressions  which  Calcutta  made  upon  me  at  the  time,  and 
which  are  omitted-in  it.  Certainly  at  the  moment  of  our  ar- 
rival the  prevailing  sentiment  was  panic.  Each  day  witnessed 
the  appearance  of  refugees  from  up  country,  with  tales  of 
fresh  horrors.  The  whole  country  seemed  slipping  from  our 
grasp  :  Delhi  and  Agra  were  in  the  hands  of  the  mutineers  ; 
an  English  garrison,  with  a  numerous  party  of  civilians,  with 
ladies  and  children,  were  besieged  in  Lucknow,  which  Have- 
lock  had  not  yet  succeeded  in  relieving;  the  solitary  sur- 
vivor of  the  Cawnpore  massacre  had  only  arrived  two  or  three 
days  before.  He  was  pointed  out  to  me  one  afternoon  in 
awe-stricken  tones  by  a  friend.  Almost  every  private  house 
was  an  asylum  for  refugees.  I  was  the  guest  of  my  old  friend, 
the  late  Sir  Arthur  Buller,  and  shared  his  hospitality  with  two 
ladies  who  had  both  been  obliged  to  fly  for  their  lives.  One  of 
them  in  particular  had  a  very  narrow  escape.  She  left  the 
station  at  which  she  was  staying  at  nine  p.m.,  fearing  an  out- 
break, but  scarcely  anticipating  it  so  soon.     By  six  o'clock 

*  "  Narrative  of  Lord  Elgin's  Embassy  to  China  and  Japan." 


CALCUTTA   DURING   THE    MUTINY.  103 

the  next  morning  every  man,  woman,  and  child  in  the  place 
had  been  murdered.  For  two  nights  and  a  day  she  rode  or 
drove  with  a  double-barrelled  gun  across  her  knees.  Al- 
though she  was  robbed  of  this  and  of  all  the  money  she  pos- 
sessed, her  life  was  spared  by  the  natives  she  encountered  ; 
but  during  these  thirty-six  hours  she  tasted  no  food,  and  I 
remember  being  deeply  impressed  by  the  narrative  of  her 
adventures,  though  these  are  all  the  particulars  I  can  recall. 
As  everybody  one  met  had  lost  some  dear  relative  or  friend, 
or  was  in  feverish  anxiety  as  to  the  fate  of  those  from  whom 
no  news  had  been  received,  a  fearful  gloom  pervaded  the 
community  ;  and  this  was  heightened  by  the  susjDense  at- 
taching to  Lucknow,  where  so  many  officials  in  both  branches 
of  the  service,  with  delicate  women  and  children,  were  col- 
lected. Every  day  we  expected  to  hear  the  news  of  its  fall ; 
and  with  the  experience  of  Cawnpore  fresh  in  our  memories, 
we  knew  that  this  meant  the  massacre,  under  the  most  re- 
volting conditions,  of  every  soul.  It  was  no  wonder,  under 
these  circumstances,  that  every  soldier  we'  brought  was  hur- 
ried up  to  Havelock,  and  that  a  naval  brigade  formed  from 
the  Shannon  and  Pearl,  and  placed  under  the  command  of 
Sir  William  Peel,  was  organized  without  delay.  The  whole 
force  was  drawn  up  on  the  morning  of  its  despatch  to  the 
front,  and  addressed  in  a  stirring  speech  by  Lord  Elgin,  when 
we  parted  from  our  shipmates,  many  of  whom  we  should  never 
see  again.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  these  reinforce- 
ments, arriving  when  they  did,  enabled  Havelock  to  relieve 
Lucknow,  and  that  the  salvation  of  that  place  by  the  Eng- 
lish was  the  turning-point  of  the  mutiny.  The  China  force 
thus  diverted  by  Lord  Elgin  without  waiting  for  instructions 
from  home,  thereby  indefinitely  postponing  his  own  mission, 
amounted  to  five  thousand  men  ;  and  these  just  turned  the 
scale  at  the  critical  moment.  As  a  testimony  to  this,  I  can- 
not do  better  than  quote  a  letter  addressed  by  Sir  Henry 
Ward,  whose  position  as  Governor  of  Ceylon  enabled  him  to 
judge  of  the  situation  as  well  as  any  man,  to  Lord  Elgin  : 


104  EPISODES    IN    A    LIFE    OF   ADVENTURE. 

"  You  may  think  me  impertinent,"  he  says,  "  in  volunteering  an  opin- 
ion upon  what,  in  the  first  instance,  only  concerns  you  and  the  queen  and 
Lord  Canning.  Uut  having  seen  something  of  public  life  during  a  great 
part  of  my  own,  which  is  now  fast  verging  into  the  '  sear  and  yellow  leaf,' 
I  may  venture  to  say  that  I  never  knew  a  nobler  thing  than  that  which 
you  have  done,  in  preferring  the  safety  of  India  to  the  success  of  your 
Chinese  negotiations.  If  I  know  anything  of  English  public  opinion,  this 
single  act  will  place  you  higher  in  general  estimation  as  a  statesman  than 
your  whole  past  career,  honorable  and  fortunate  as  it  has  been.  For  it  is 
not  every  man  who  would  venture  to  alter  the  destination  of  a  force  upon 
the  despatch  of  which  a  Parliament  has  been  dissolved,  and  a  govern- 
ment might  have  been  superseded.  It  is  not  every  man  who  would  consign 
himself  for  many  months  to  political  inaction  in  order  simply  to  serve 
the  interests  of  his  country.  You  have  set  a  bright  example  at  a  mo- 
ment of  darkness  and  calamity ;  and  if  India  can  be  saved,  it  is  to  you 
that  we  shall  owe  its  redemption,  for  nothing  short  of  the  Chinese  ex- 
pedition would  have  supplied  the  means  of  holding  our  ground  mitil 
further  reinforcements  are  received."  * 

I  have  ventured  to  introduce  this  quotation  because  I  do 
not  think  that  either  in  pubHc  estimation,  or  in  the  accounts 
of  the  Indian  mutiny  whicli  have  been  published,  the  impor- 
tant bearing  of  this  act  on  the  part  of  Lord  Elgin  upon  the 
destiny  of  our  Indian  empire  has  ever  been  sufficiently  rec- 
ognized and  appreciated.  The  ambassador  was  at  this  time 
staying  as  the  guest  of  Lord  and  Lady  Canning,  with  his 
brother  Sir  Frederick  Bruce,  and  Mr.  (now  Sir  Henry)  Loch, 
at  Government  House.  Here  I  used  constantly  to  dine,  and 
here  I  remember  meeting  Lord  Clyde  on  the  evening  of  his 
arrival  in  India  to  take  the  command  of  the  army.  It  gave 
one  a  curious  sensation  to  pass  the  native  sentries  at  the 
gates  and  in  the  corridors  of  the  governor-general's  residence, 
and  see  them  all  keeping  guard  with  ramrods  in  their  hands, 
instead  of  the  muskets  of  which  they  had  been  deprived  ; 
and  I  was  much  struck,  amid  the  universal  exasperation, 
mingled  with  panic  and  gloom,  which  prevailed,  at  the  per- 
fectly calm  and  even  unemotional  attitude  both  of  Lord  and 
Lady  Canning.     For  not  only  was  the  governor-general  over- 

*  "  Extracts  from  Letters  of  Lord  Elgin."     Privately  printed. 


CALCUTTA  DURING   THE    MUTINY.  lO^ 

whelmed  with  the  cares  and  anxieties  arising  out  of  the  for- 
midable progress  which  the  mutiny  was  making,  but  he  was 
exposed  to  the  severest  censure  on  the  part  of  the  English 
community  at  Calcutta,  by  whom  he  was  nick-named  Clem- 
ency Canning,  and  who  accused  him  of  a  forbearance  in  his 
conduct  of  affairs  and  treatment  of  the  natives  which  had 
brought  matters  to  their  present  pass,  and  which  they  be- 
lieved imperilled  not  only  the  Indian  empire,  but  their  own 
lives.  As  nothing  has  a  tendency  to  destroy  the  faculty  of 
calm  judgment  so  completely  as  panic,  the  violence  of  the 
language  employed  was  usually  in  proportion  to  the  degree 
of  alarm  that  was  felt — a  sentiment  no  doubt  exaggerated 
by  the  fact  that  it  was  mingled  with  contemjDt  for  the  race 
from  whose  cruelty  so  much  was  feared. 

"  I  have  seldom,"  says  Lord  Elgin,  in  his  diary  during  this  episode, 
"from  man  or  woman  since  I  came  to  the  East,  heard  a  sentence  which 
was  reconcilable  with  the  hypothesis  that  Christianity  had  ever  come 
into  the  world.  Detestation,  contempt,  ferocity,  vengeance,  whether 
Chinamen  or  Indians  be  the  object.  There  are  some  three  or  four  hun- 
dred servants  in  this  house  (Government  House).  When  one  first  passes 
by  their  salaaming,  one  feels  a  little  awkward.  Eut  the  feeling  soon 
wears  off,  and  one  moves  among  them  with  perfect  indifference,  treating 
them  not  as  dogs,  because  in  that  case  one  would  whistle  to  them  and 
pat  them,  but  as  machines  with  which  one  can  have  no  communion  or 
sympathy.  Of  course  those  who  can  speak  the  language  are  somewhat 
more  en  rapport  with  the  natives  ;  but  very  slightly  so,  I  take  it.  When 
the  passions  of  fear  and  hatred  are  grafted  on  this  indifference,  the  result 
is  frightful,  an  absolute  callousness  as  to  the  sufferings  of  those  passions, 
which  must  be  witnessed  to  be  understood  or  believed." 

I  remember  meeting  one  clergyman  who  contrasted,  in 
my  mind,  very  unfavorably  with  the  filibustering  friends 
with  whom  I  had  lately  been  associating,  in  the  ferocious 
vindictiveness  of  his  language,  and  the  fury  with  which  he 
expressed  his  indignation  with  Lord  Canning  because  the 
latter  had  removed  some  commissioners  who,  not  content 
with  hanging  all  the  rebels  they  could  lay  their  hands  on,  had 
been  insulting  them  by  destroying  their  caste,  and  thus  inter- 
5* 


I06  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

fering,  in  their  belief,  with  their  prospects  in  a  future  state 
of  existence.  Alluding  to  this  conversation,  Lord  Elgin  re- 
marks: "The  reverend  gentleman  could  not  understand  the 
conduct  of  the  government ;  could  not  see  that  there  was  any 
impropriety  in  torturing  men's  souls ;  seemed  to  think  that 
a  good  deal  might  be  said  in  favor  of  bodily  torture  as  well. 
These  are  our  teachers,  O  Israel !  Imagine  what  the  pupils 
become  under  such  a  leading !"  The  poor  man  was  evi- 
dently utterly  demoralized  by  fear.  The  holy  father  who 
offered  to  make  me  War  Minister  of  Honduras  was,  I  think, 
a  better  specimen  of  the  Church  militant  here  upon  earth 
than  he.  Perhaps  if,  during  my  early  experiences,  I  had  not 
met  such  a  singular  variety  of  ecclesiastical  specimens  in 
different  parts  of  the  world,  instead  of  remaining  a  rolling- 
stone  to  this  day,  they  might  have  builded  me  into  one  of 
their  temples. 

At  the  same  time,  I  must  admit  that  the  treatment  of  such 
a  rebellion  as  that  with  which  Lord  Canning  had  to  deal 
involves  very  difficult  and  complicated  considerations,  as 
well  from  a  moral  as  from  an  expediency  point  of  view.  I 
think  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  if,  when  the  first  regiment 
mutinied  at  Barrackpore,  the  governor-general  had  ordered 
them  to  be  blown  from  the  guns,  instead  of  treating  them 
with  the  leniency  he  did,  the  mutiny  would  have  been  nipped 
in  the  bud,  while  he  would  have  been  handed  down  to  pos- 
terity as  a  butcher  of  the  most  ferocious  description,  and  his 
name  branded  with  universal  execration.  No  one  would 
have  known  what  thousands  of  lives  and  untold  horrors 
might  thus  have  been  spared,  and  how  merciful  this  act 
would  have  been,  judged  by  the  light  of  events  which  only 
transpired  because  it  was  not  consummated  ;  for  had  the 
mutiny  been  thus  checked,  there  would  have  been  no  appar- 
ent justification  for  an  act  of  such  barbarity.  An  illustration 
of  an  opposite  kind  occurred  some  years  later  in  the  case  of 
the  late  Governor  Eyre  of  Jamaica.  It  is  impossible  to  say, 
now,  what  massacres  by  the  negroes  his  timely  severity  may 


CALCUTTA   DURING   THE    MUTINY.  107 

not  have  prevented :  it  is  easy  for  those  ensconced  comfort- 
ably by  their  own  firesides  to  sit  in  judgment  upon  men  who 
have  this  tremendous  responsibility  to  bear,  and  who  feel 
that  the  lives  of  thousands  of  their  country  men  and  women 
depend  upon  the  promptitude  and  vigor  of  their  action ;  and 
it  would  be  well  that  these  arm-chair  humanitarians  should 
remember  that  the  very  spirit  which  prompts  them  to  show 
no  mercy  to  an  unfortunate  governor  who  may,  under  this 
terrific  pressure,  commit  an  error  of  judgment,  is  just  the 
tendency  which  would  lead  them,  if  they  were  put  in  the 
place  of  their  victim,  to  act  as  he  did.  Another  very  inter- 
esting instance  of  the  same  kind  was  brought  under  my  imme- 
diate notice  in  Ceylon.  I  was  in  that  island  when  a  native 
rising  occurred  in  the  Kandyan  province  in  the  year  1849. 
Lord  Torrington  was  governor  at  tlie  time,  and  my  father 
was  the  chief-justice.  It  was  soon  apparent  that  the  move- 
ment was  not  dangerous;  not  a  European  life  was  taken,  and 
beyond  the  gathering  on  one  or  two  occasions  of  some  hun- 
dreds of  natives,  and  the  robbing  of  one  or  two  planters' 
bungalows,  nothing  of  importance  occurred.  Nevertheless, 
martial  law  was  proclaimed,  continued  over  a  long  period — 
I  forget  how  long — but  from  first  to  last  some  two  hundred 
natives  were  shot  or  hung.  The  sentiments  of  the  English 
community  became  divided;  so  strong  a  current  of  public 
opinion  set  in  condemnatory  of  the  acts  of  the  government, 
that  it  was  thought  best  at  last  to  invoke  the  action  of  the 
civil  tribunals,  and  a  few  acres  were  exempted  from  the 
operation  of  martial  law  in  Kandy,  in  order  that  my  father 
might  try  some  of  the  leading  rebels  who  had  been  captured, 
for  high-treason.  This  was  a  manifest  blunder  on  the  part 
of  the  governor;  either  the  country  was  too  disturbed  for 
the  civil  courts  to  sit,  or  it  was  sufficiently  peaceable  to  ren- 
der the  action  of  the  courts-martial  unnecessary.  As  it  was, 
while  sitting  in  court  listening  to  the  tedious  formalities  of 
the  ordinary  legal  processes,  I  actually  on  one  occasion 
heard  the  distant  reverberation  of  the  volley  which  was  ter- 


Io8  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE    OF   ADVENTURE. 

minating  the  existence  of  a  man  who  had  been  tried  the 
same  day  for  the  same  crime  by  a  drum-head  court-martiaL 
This  was  an  insult  alike  to  the  majesty  of  the  law  and  the 
common-sense  of  the  community,  and  excited  so  strong  a 
feeling  of  resentment  on  the  part  of  the  latter  that  it  ulti- 
mately led  to  Lord  Torrington's  recall.  At  the  same  time  I 
have  always  felt  that  if  Lord  Torrington  committed  an  error 
in  judgment,  which  he  undoubtedly  did,  it  was  one  for  which 
he  was  not  to  be  judged  too  hardly,  considering  the  pressure 
which  at  the  first  moment  of  panic  was  brought  to  bear  upon 
him  from  certain  quarters,  though  it  was  difficult  to  realize 
the  state  of  mind  which,  after  the  insignificant  character  of 
the  movement  became  evident,  led  him  to  prolong  the  state 
of  martial  law,  and  intrust  the  lives  of  men  to  the  judgment 
of  two  or  three  young  military  officers,  when  there  was  no 
reason  why  they  should  not  have  the  advantage  of  a  trial  in 
a  legally  constituted  court.  It  may  generally  be  assumed 
that  when  the  British  community  cease  to  feel  that  danger 
exists,  it  has  passed  away  some  time  before.  A  governor 
may  often  have  to  resist  their  demand  for  severity;  he  is 
safe  in  acceding  to  their  appeal  for  clemency — and  this  was 
made  by  the  majority  of  the  Europeans  in  Ceylon  for  some 
time  before  the  pressure  of  public  opinion  became  so  strong 
as  finally  to  put  an  end  to  summary  executions.  Under  no 
circumstances  have  the  public  in  England  any  right  to  work 
themselves  up  to  a  state  of  excitement  upon  a  subject  upon 
which  their  remoteness  from  the  scene  of  action,  and  igno- 
rance of  local  conditions,  absolutely  disqualify  them  from 
passing  a  judgment.  By  so  doing  they  run  the  risk  of  com- 
mitting grave  injustice  and  of  blasting  the  career  of  consci- 
entious and  painstaking  public  servants,  who,  if  they  have 
blundered,  are  certainly  not  likely  to  have  done  so  wilfully, 
and  whose  action,  which  they  so  loudly  condemn,  may  have 
averted  a  very  grave  catastrophe. 

The  only  excitement  during  our  month's  stay  in  Calcutta, 
beyond  that  attendant  upon  the  arrival  of  news  and  refugees 


CHINA  DURING  THE  WAR,   1857-1859.  I09 

from  the  interior,  was  the  anticipation  of  a  riot — happily  fal- 
sified— during  the  great  Mohammedan  festival  of  the  Mohur- 
rum.  Some  of  the  more  timid  residents  adopted  all  sorts  of 
precautions  for  escape  in  case  of  a  general  massacre;  indeed 
there  was  a  universal  sense  of  living  on  a  volcano,  which 
imparted  some  piquancy  to  an  existence  that  during  the 
heats  of  August  would  otherwise  have  been  decidedly  dull. 
By  this  time  we  had  felt  enough  of  what  India  during  the 
mutiny  was  like,  not  to  care  to  prolong  our  experience,  espe- 
cially as  there  was  no  possibility  of  active  co-operation ;  so 
we  were  not  sorry  to  hear  that  a  P.  &  O.  steamer,  which  had 
been  expressly  chartered  and  fitted  up  for  the  accommoda- 
tion of  the  embassy,  was  ready;  and  in  it  we  bade  adieu  to 
Calcutta  on  the  3d  of  September,  and  shortly  after  found 
ourselves  once  more  at  anchor  in  the  harbor  of  Hong  Kong, 
within  two  months  after  we  had  left  it. 

The  incidents  of  our  war  with  China,  and  of  our  embassy 
to  that  country  and  Japan,  which  extended  over  two  years, 
were  so  fully  recorded  in  the  history  of  it  which  I  published 
shortly  after  our  return  to  England,  that  it  leaves  me  little 
to  relate  here.  The  experience  was  one  pregnant  alike  with 
excitement  and  instruction.  The  excitement  consisted  in 
the  novelty  of  some  of  our  methods  of  warfare  and  the  inci- 
dents attendant  upon  it,  and  the  instruction  in  the  new  re- 
gions we  visited.  It  was  strange,  for  instance,  in  this  nine- 
teenth century,  to  find  one's  self  adopting  the  contrivances 
of  a  bygone  age,  and  scaling  walls  by  means  of  ladders  in 
the  face  of  the  enemy.  I  do  not  know  when  I  have  felt  a 
keener  thrill  of  emotion  than  when  we  raced  for  the  ladders 
at  the  taking  of  Canton,  and  clustered  up  them  like  bees, 
holding  on  to  one  another's  legs,  and  nearly  pulling  each 
other  down  in  the  eager  scramble.  It  was  on  this  occasion 
that  I  saw  Lord  Gilford  (now  Admiral  the  Earl  of  Clanwill- 
iam)  shot  in  the  arm.  Then  came  the  rush  into  the  city, 
with  its  million  of  inhabitants,  all  crouching  in  terror,  to 


no  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF  ADVENTURE. 

capture  Yeh,  an  achievement  which  was  performed  by  Sir 
Astley  Cooper  Key,  who  seized  him  by  the  neck  as  he  was 
in  the  act  of  scrambling  over  a  wall  in  his  back-garden,  and 
held  him  down  till  assistance  came.  I  came  up  a  moment 
later  with  General  Crealock,  who  made  an  admirable  sketch 
of  the  truculent  mandarin,  while  he  was  still  trembling  with 
alarm  and  uncertainty  as  to  his  fate.  The  other  most  memo- 
rable incidents,  so  far  as  they  affected  me  personally,  were 
the  capture  of  the  Peiho  Forts,  the  scaling  of  the  walls  of 
Tientsin,  and  the  bombardment  of  Nankin.  On  the  first 
occasion,  I  had  obtained  permission  from  Lord  Elgin  to  ac- 
company the  attacking  squadron,  and  accepted  the  invita- 
tion of  the  late  Captain  Roderick  Dew  to  go  on  board  the 
Niinrod,  the  ship  told  off  to  lead  the  attack.  When  I  saw 
the  rows  of  batteries  bristling  with  cannon  on  each  side  of 
the  narrow  river,  between  which  we  were  to  run  the  gauntlet, 
1  somewhat  repented  of  my  warlike  enthusiasm,  and  sug- 
gested to  my  kind  host  that  I  thought  I  should  be  safer  in 
the  maintop  than  on  deck.  He  recommended  me,  however, 
to  wait  and  see  how  the  shot  went;  and  it  was  fortunate  I 
took  his  advice,  for  one  of  the  first  carried  away  the  whole 
maintop.  The  Chinese  had  trained  their  guns,  making  sure 
we  should  attack  on  a  high  tide.  As  we  attacked  at  low 
water,  nearly  all  their  shot  passed  over  the  attacking  gun- 
boats, and  we  escaped  with  but  few  casualties,  the  whole 
number  not  amounting  to  thirty.  A  year  later,  when  the 
same  forts  were  attacked,  the  Chinese  had  profited  by  expe- 
rience, and  repulsed  the  British  force  under  Admiral  Hope 
with  a  loss  of  four  hundred  men  out  of  seven  hundred. 

The  scaling  of  the  walls  of  Tientsin  was  a  very  absurd 
affair.  Some  English  officers  in  the  town  having  been  in- 
sulted, and  redress  refused,  a  column  of  marines  was  sent 
down  to  exact  it,  upon  which  the  gates  were  closed,  and  they 
were  denied  admittance.  These  gates  were  so  massive  that 
nothing  short  of  artillery  or  battering-rams  would  have  forced 
them.     It  occurred  to  Captains  Sherard  Osborn  and  Dew, 


CHINA   DURING  THE  WAR,   1857-1859.  Ill 

with  whom  I  happened  to  be,  and  who  were  accompanied 
by  a  boat's  crew,  to  scale  the  walls  and  come  upon  the  ene- 
my in  rear.  This  was  no  sooner  said  than  done.  By  means 
of  a  pent  roof  of  a  house  under  the  walls,  and  the  crevices  in 
the  wall  itself,  we  scrambled  up  unobserved,  and,  drawing  our 
revolvers,  suddenly  dashed  with  loud  yells  upon  the  dense 
mass  of  people  holding  the  gate  on  the  inside.  These,  too 
panic-stricken  to  think  of  counting  our  numbers,  and  not 
knowing  how  many  were  behind  us,  fled  in  all  directions, 
and  we  had  quietly  unbarred  the  gates  and  let  in  the  troops 
before  they  had  time  to  recover  themselves.  In  this  amus- 
ing operation  not  a  shot  was  fired  or  a  drop  of  blood  spilled. 
It  was  different  at  the  bombardment  of  Nankin,  when  the 
Taiping  rebels  opened  upon  us  very  unexpectedly  as  we 
were  steaming  past  their  batteries  in  the  Furious,  accom- 
panied by  four  other  ships  of  the  squadron.  Lord  Elgin  and 
I  were  standing  with  Captain  Osborn  on  the  bridge,  and  the 
first  shot  cut  through  a  rope  a  couple  of  feet  above  his  lord- 
ship's head.  Osborn  immediately  ordered  us  both  below, 
and  the  ambassador  went  down  into  his  cabin  to  find  another 
round-shot  which  had  just  entered  it  through  the  ship's  side 
— so  he  did  not  seem  much  safer  there.  I  was  leaning  over 
the  bulwarks  watching  the  batteries  when  another  round-shot 
came  through  them  close  under  my  arm,  one  of  the  splinters 
tearing  out  my  watch-chain.  The  ball  then  passed  across 
the  crowded  deck  without  touching  a  soul,  and  through  the 
opposite  bulwark. 

For  interest,  however,  nothing  equalled  our  entry  into  the 
bay  of  Yedo,  and  our  fortnight's  residence  in  that  city,  which 
until  then  had  been  hermetically  sealed  to  foreigners.  The 
suddenness  with  which  Japanese  civilization  burst  upon  our 
surprised  senses,  and  its  extreme  novelty,  can  scarcely  be 
realized  now  ;  but  to  have  been  the  first  Europeans  who  ever 
invaded  the  exclusive  precincts  of  that  great  city  was  an  ex- 
perience never  to  be  forgotten.  So  also  was  our  memorable 
cruise  of  six  hundred  miles  up  the  unknown  waters  of  the 


112  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

Yang-tse-Kiang,  with  its  cities  desolated  by  civil  war,  its 
majestic  reaches,  fine  scenery,  and  the  wondering  population 
on  its  banks,  as  we  steamed  silently  past  them  or  wriggled 
for  hours,  and  sometimes  days,  on  some  treacherous  shoal. 
This  kind  of  work,  varied  by  one  or  two  special  missions 
upon  which  I  was  sent — one  to  Soochow,  a  large  and  at  that 
time  rarely  visited  city  in  the  interior,  where  I  had  an  in- 
terview with  the  governor-general  of  the  province,  and  an- 
other to  the  head  of  the  Taiping  rebellion  at  Nankin,  was 
pleasanter  than  that  which  afterwards  fell  to  my  lot  as  com- 
missioner for  the  settlement  of  the  trade  and  tariff,  which 
used  to  involve  a  daily  ride  in  chairs  to  the  Chinese  officials 
appointed  for  the  purpose  in  Shanghai,  numerous  unwhole- 
some Chinese  repasts,  and  incessant  wranglings  over  export 
and  import  duties.  In  June,  1858,  Sir  Frederick  Bruce  re- 
turned to  England  with  the  Treaty  of  Tientsin,  and  I  became 
acting  secretary  to  the  embassy. 

At  last  it  all  came  to  an  end,  winding  up  with  an  interest- 
ing four  days'  march  with  a  column  of  twelve  hundred  men 
to  a  town  near  Canton,  where  it  was  considered  desirable  to 
make  a  display  of  force,  on  which  occasion  the  French  con- 
tingent, consisting  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  men,  who  did 
not  fire  a  shot,  were  afterwards  reported  in  the  French  papers 
to  have  performed  prodigies  of  valor.  My  companion  on 
this  march  was  the  late  Sir  Harry  Parkes,  with  whom,  as 
well  as  with  Sir  Thomas  Wade,  I  had  been  constantly  associ- 
ated, and  whose  unflinching  nerve,  knowledge  of  the  language 
and  of  the  character  of  the  people,  enabled  him  to  render  in- 
estimable service.  In  his  premature  death  in  the  midst  of  a 
brilliant  career  the  country  has  lost  one  of  its  most  conscien- 
tious and  gifted  servants.  In  April,  1859,  the  embassy,  hav- 
ing successfully  accomplished  its  labors,  often  in  the  face  of 
difficulties  which  seemed  at  the  time  almost  insurmountable, 
returned  to  England. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

SOME   SPORTING   REMINISCENCES. 

Just  four -and -thirty  years  have  elapsed  since  I  wrote 
my  first  article  in  Blackwood's  Magazine.  It  was  entitled 
"A  Sporting  Settler  in  Ceylon,"  and  was  a  review  of  Mr. 
(now  Sir  Samuel)  Baker's  most  graphic  and  entertaining 
book,  "  The  Rifle  and  the  Hound  in  Ceylon."  I  ventured 
to  suggest  to  my  friend  the  late  Mr.  John  Blackwood  that, 
as  I  had  taken  part  in  many  of  the  incidents  that  are  there 
described,  and  had  participated  in  some  of  those  striking 
episodes  of  sport,  I  might  be  allowed  to  try  my  'prentice 
hand  at  reviewing  the  book.  Till  then  I  had  been  more 
familiar  with  the  use  of  the  gun  than  of  the  pen  ;  but  the 
former  has  been  long  since  laid  aside  in  favor  of  the  latter, 
and,  on  the  whole,  I  think  more  sport  can  be  got  out  of  so- 
ciety than  out  of  any  herd  of  elephants,  provided  that  you 
know  where  the  weak  spots  lie,  and  your  aim  be  accurate. 
Whether  the  effects  which  result  to  the  literary  sportsman  in 
search  of  social  quarry  are  comparable  from  a  moral  and 
physical  point  of  view  with  those  which  are  involved  in  the 
pursuit  oifcne  naturcc,  is  a  very  different  question  ;  and  when 
I  look  back  to  the  years  '49  and  '50,  and  remember  the  keen, 
unmitigated  delight  with  which  I  anticipated  a  day  in  the 
jungle  with  the  dogs,  I  doubt  whether  any  more  healthy 
or  innocent  form  of  enjoyment  exists  than  the  chase  in  wild 
tropical  mountains  of  the  grand  animals  with  which  they 
abound. 

For  this  purpose  there  is  no  spot  more  delightfully  situ- 
ated than  Newera  Ellia,  the  sanatorium  of  Ceylon.     It  is  a 


114  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

small  plain,  now  partially  converted  by  artificial  means  into 
a  lake,  surrounded  by  mountains,  the  highest  rising  to  a 
height  of  nearly  nine  thousand  feet  above  the  sea,  and 
two  thousand  above  the  plain.  Six  -  and  -  thirty  years  ago 
these  highlands  were  all  heavily  timbered,  as  their  elevation 
was  too  great  for  coffee -planting.  I  believe,  however,  that 
since  they  have  been  found  adapted  to  the  cultivation  of  tea 
and  cinchona,  plantations  have  taken  the  place  of  the  thick 
jungle,  which  in  those  days  was  abundantly  stocked  with 
elephants,  cheetahs,  elk,  wild  boar,  and  many  other  descrip- 
tions of  game.  So  numerous  and  daring  were  these  animals 
that  the  footprints  of  elephants  which  had  been  paying  a 
nocturnal  visit  to  the  kitchen-garden  were  often  to  be  seen 
among  the  cabbages  ;  the  loud  bark  of  the  elk  was  constant- 
ly audible  from  the  house ;  and  on  more  than  one  occasion 
cheetahs  were  killed  making  depredations  upon  the  live-stock. 
Upon  one  of  these  the  bold  forager  came  down  and  carried 
off  a  calf  from  the  lawn  at  midday — not,  however,  without 
being  observed.  We  followed  him  up  so  closely  that  he  was 
obliged  to  drop  his  prey  not  many  hundred  yards  after  enter- 
ing the  jungle ;  and  set  three  spring-guns,  covering  the  car- 
cass, feeling  assured  that  the  cheetah  would  return.  We 
were  not  disappointed :  an  hour  had  scarcely  elapsed  before 
we  heard  the  guns  go  off,  and  on  rushing  to  the  spot  found 
the  traces  of  blood,  which  we  followed  until  we  reached  the 
animal  breathing  his  last  gasp.  He  was  a  fine  specimen, 
but  not  so  large  as  another  which  we  captured  alive  in  a 
trap,  which  we  had  baited  with  a  kid.  Although  at  this  dis- 
tance of  time  I  have  forgotten  his  exact  dimensions,  he  was 
the  largest  I  ever  saw,  and  I  preserved  his  skin  for  many 
years. 

In  those  days  there  were  generally  two  and  sometimes 
three  packs  of  hounds  at  Newera  Ellia,  each  consisting  of 
eight  or  ten  couple;  and  at  certain  seasons  I  went  out  elk- 
hunting  on  foot — for  the  jungle  was  too  thick  to  ride  through 
— almost  every  morning,  sometimes  being  in  at  the  death  of 


SOME    SPORTING  REMINISCENCES.  II5 

two  of  these  noble  animals  before  midday.  The  sambre,  or 
elk,  as  he  is  popularly  called,  usually  stands  about  thirteen 
hands  high,  and  has  magnificent  antlers.  When  brought  to 
bay  he  makes  a  gallant  fight  for  it ;  and  as  it  was  not  con- 
sidered orthodox  to  carry  any  other  weapon  than  a  long 
hunting-knife,  the  final  struggle  was  generally  exciting,  and 
by  no  means  devoid  of  risk.  The  sport  was  rendered  doubly 
enjoyable  by  the  contrast  it  presented  to  the  life  in  the 
plains.  One  left  Colombo  with  a  thermometer  ranging  per- 
haps from  90°  to  95°,  and  in  twenty-four  hours  was  enjoying 
the  blaze  of  a  crackling  wood-fire,  glad  to  turn  into  bed 
under  a  thick  blanket,  and  in  the  early  morning  to  turn  out 
again  and  find  the  edges  of  the  puddles  on  the  road  fringed 
with  a  thin  coating  of  ice.  The  reaction  from  the  enervating 
heats  that  had  been  escaped,  produced  a  delightful  feeling 
of  exhilaration,  which  was  increased  by  the  pleasures  of  an- 
ticipation, as  one  followed  the  experienced  master  of  the 
pack  and  his  dog -boy  into  the  jungle,  with  the  certainty, 
whichever  beat  one  tried,  of  a  scramble  through  splendid 
scenery,  and  the  chance  of  some  wild  adventure  by  "flood 
or  fell."  Down  all  these  wooded  valleys  dashed  mountain 
torrents,  in  one  of  which  the  instinct  of  the  elk  would  most 
probably  bring  him  to  bay ;  while  here  and  there  the  forest 
ended  abruptly,  and  enclosed  island -like  patches  of  open 
land,  of  greater  or  less  extent,  covered  with  long,  coarse 
grass,  to  which  the  game  would  also  be  very  apt  to  turn, 
trusting  to  his  superior  fleetness  in  the  open  as  a  means  of 
escape.  There  were  always  two  or  three  greyhounds,  or 
Scotch  deerhounds,  with  the  pack,  to  provide  for  this  contin- 
gency ;  and  these  were  kept  in  a  leash,  to  be  slipped  as  soon 
as  the  game  broke  cover,  or,  in  the  event  of  a  bay,  to  be  de- 
spatched in  aid  of  the  less  powerful  hunting-dogs.  These, 
as  a  rule,  were  not  necessarily  thoroughbred,  it  being  found 
that  well-bred  dogs  were  apt  to  get  too  keen,  and  lose  them- 
selves in  their  ardent  pursuit  of  their  game — falling,  probably, 
a  prey  to  the  cheetahs;  while  your  cur  would  abandon  the 


Il6  EPISODES    IN    A    LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

chase  when  he  found  himself  too  far  from  home,  and  prudent- 
ly return  to  the  bosom  of  his  family. 

One  of  the  inconveniences — as  it  constituted  also  one  of 
the  excitements — of  this  sport  was,  that  you  were  liable  at 
any  moment  to  come  upon  game  that  you  were  not  looking 
for,  and  did  not  want  to  find.  I  remember  upon  one  occa- 
sion, after  listening  to  the  music  of  the  dogs  in  the  distance 
as  they  were  apparently  crossing  some  patch  of  open,  to 
judge  from  the  pace  they  were  going,  and  after  making  up 
my  mind  as  to  the  direction  the  elk  was  taking,  and  the  pool 
in  which  he  was  likely  to  come  to  bay — for  I  knew  the  coun- 
try well  for  miles  round — making  a  rush  by  the  only  avail- 
able path  through  the  dense  jungle,  and  coming  suddenly 
upon  the  stern  of  an  elephant  taking  his  midday  siesta ;  at 
least  I  presumed,  from  his  motionless  attitude,  that  he  was 
dozing,  and  I  was  thankful  for  it.  He  was  standing  in  the 
narrow  path,  and  completely  blocked  it  up.  I  was  so  near  him 
that  I  could  have  pulled  his  tail,  had  I  felt  inclined  to  be  im- 
pertinent j  as  it  was,  the  only  course  open  to  me  was  a  strate- 
gic movement  to  the  rear.  The  jungle  was  so  thick  that  it 
was  impossible  to  turn  him  without  attracting  his  attention  ; 
and,  under  the  circumstances,  it  seemed  a  pity  to  disturb  his 
noon-day  dreams.  As  he  was  quite  alone,  he  was  probably 
a  "  rogue  "  or  "  must "  elephant ;  and  in  that  case  my  chances 
of  escape,  should  he  happen  to  detect  me,  would  have  been 
small.  I  felt  compelled  even  to  deny  myself  the  pleasure  of 
trying  to  get  a  glimpse  of  his  head  and  face.  His  huge  hind- 
quarters towered  above  me  as  fixed  and  motionless  as  though 
they  had  been  carved  in  stone.  After  staring  at  them  for  a 
minute  or  two,  and  turning  the  situation  over  in  my  mind,  I 
retired  stealthily,  and  on  tiptoe ;  and  the  result  was,  that  be- 
fore I  could  strike  another  path  in  the  desired  direction,  the 
sound  of  the  chase  had  died  away.  However,  I  made  steadily 
for  my  pool,  and  as  I  approached  it,  knew,  from  the  changed 
notes  of  the  hounds,  that  what  I"  had  anticipated  had  oc- 
curred.    The  elk  was  standing  on  the  edge  of  a  fall  some 


SOME    SPORTING   REMINISCENCES.  II7 

twenty  or  thirty  feet  high,  with  a  part  of  the  pack  squat- 
ting on  their  haunches  in  a  semicircle,  barking  at  him,  but 
afraid  to  go  in  at  him :  one  foolhardy  young  cur  had  appar- 
ently been  rash  enough  to  venture  too  near,  and  got  an  ugly 
gash  for  his  pains,  which  he  was  now  licking  disconsolately. 
The  rest  of  the  pack,  with  the  seizing  hounds  and  their  owner, 
had  apparently  gone  off  upon  some  other  scent,  for  they  were 
nowhere  to  be  seen,  so  I  had  all  the  fun  to  myself.  No 
sooner  did  I  appear  upon  the  scene  than  the  elk  made  a 
bound,  and  plunged  over  the  cataract  into  the  pool  below. 
It  was  a  dark,  deep-looking  hole,  some  twenty  yards  in  di- 
ameter, and  here  he  began  to  swim  about,  apparently  unin- 
jured. The  pack,  declining  to  follow  him  in  his  leap,  ran 
round,  and,  jumping  in  from  below,  were  soon  all  swimming 
about  him,  giving  tongue  and  snapping  prudently  at  his 
stern.  As  he  apparently  shrank  from  the  shallow  water,  and 
kept  swimming  about  the  centre,  there  was  nothing  for  it  but 
to  go  in  after  him.  So,  putting  my  knife  between  my  teeth, 
I  swam  out  to  him.  When  one  is  young  and  excited  the 
idea  that  animals  suffer  pain  does  not  seem  to  occur  to  one ; 
at  all  events,  I  look  back  to  ray  performance  upon  that  oc- 
casion with  a  certain  feeling  of  disgust.  The  picture  of  the 
fine  animal,  with  his  head  and  magnificent  antlers  thrown 
back,  his  eyeballs  staring,  and  his  tongue  half  out,  rises  be- 
fore me  as  vividly  as  if  it  were  yesterday ;  but  I  cannot  re- 
member the  details  of  that  horrible  struggle.  I  know  that 
it  lasted  a  long  time  ;  that  more  than  once  I  had  to  swim 
ashore  and  rest ;  that  the  waters  of  the  pool  were  tinged  with 
blood  from  the  repeated  stabs  I  gave  the  poor  beast,  for  it 
was  difficult,  while  swimming,  to  strike  a  vital  spot  with  suffi- 
cient force  for  it  to  be  fatal ;  that  the  dogs,  in  their  excite- 
ment, were  very  apt  to  mistake  me  for  the  elk ;  that,  finally, 
we  all  came  tumbling  into  the  shallow  water  together,  and 
that  there  I  despatched  him — a  splendid  animal  of  unusual 
size.  I  have  had  several  encounters  with  elk  at  bay,  and 
more  than  once  have  seen  dogs  receive  such  severe  wounds 


Il8  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE  OF   ADVENTURE. 

that  they  have  died  of  them,  so  savagely  has  the  elk  fought; 
but  none  of  them  were  so  exciting  as  this — perhaps  because 
I  was  alone. 

One  soon  got  to  know,  from  the  way  they  gave  tongue, 
whether  the  dogs  were  on  an  elk  or  on  some  other  animal. 
A  steady  barking  for  a  long  time  in  one  place  was  sure  to 
indicate  either  a  wild  boar  or  a  cheetah.  On  one  occasion 
when  we  came  up,  we  found  the  whole  pack  sitting  in  a  cir- 
cle round  a  tree,  with  their  noses  in  the  air,  barking  franti- 
cally, and  on  looking  up  we  saw  in  the  fork  of  the  branches, 
about  twelve  feet  from  the  ground,  a  cheetah,  with  his  back 
curved  like  a  cat,  and  his  long  tail  swaying  to  and  fro,  look- 
ing viciously  down,  as  though  making  up  his  mind  for  a 
spring,  and  only  hesitating  which  hound  to  choose.  It  was 
a  difficult  matter  to  get  the  dogs  off,  and  not  altogether  a 
safe  one,  as  one  never  felt  sure  that  the  brute  would  not 
spring  upon  a  hound  as  he  saw  them  retreating.  However, 
in  spite  of  the  aggressive  expression  of  his  ugly  countenance, 
he  was  only  too  happy  to  be  left  alone,  and  we  parted  with 
every  token  of  mutual  respect,  if  not  of  esteem.  This  was 
the  only  occasion  on  which  I  ever  saw  the  dogs  "  tree  "  a 
cheetah,  and  it  is  a  somewhat  rare  occurrence ;  but  they 
often  used  to  bring  a  boar  to  bay,  to  the  great  disgust  of 
their  owner,  who  knew  that  it  possibly  meant  the  loss  of  a 
dog  or  two,  and  would  certainly  involve  some  severe  wounds. 

Once  I  came  upon  the  pack  when  they  had  got  a  porcine 
monster  ensconced  in  a  bush,  out  of  which  gleamed  his  great 
curved  tusks,  while  a  dog  lying  dead  by  his  side  showed  to 
what  effective  use  he  had  already  put  them.  The  pack 
were  evidently  demoralized  at  the  sight,  for  they  kept  at  a 
respectful  distance,  but  barked  frantically.  One  or  two  dogs 
bolder  than  the  rest  would  occasionally  make  a  rush  in  ;  and 
they  were  so  far  useful  that  they  distracted  the  brute's  atten- 
tion, and  enabled  my  friend  and  myself  to  crawl  behind, 
while  the  dog-boy  was  helping  the  dogs  to  make  demonstra- 
tions in  front.     Our  object  was  to  hamstring  the  beast  while 


SOME   SPORTING   REMINISCENCES.  II9 

his  attention  was  otherwise  engaged  ;  and  this  we  succeeded 
in  doing  in  one  leg,  though  the  suddenness  with  which  he 
turned  upon  us  when  he  felt  the  cut  made  us  jump  back  with 
remarkable  alacrity.  We  had  meant  to  do  both  legs  at  the 
same  moment,  but  the  half- squatting  position  of  the  boar 
made  it  difficult,  and  I  failed  in  mine ;  so  we  had  to  wait  for 
another  opportunity,  for  the  boar  was  now  on  his  guard.  I 
did  not  note  the  time  it  took  us  to  despatch  this  animal,  but 
I  do  not  think  I  exaggerate  when  I  say  that  our  struggle 
lasted  half  an  hour,  so  wary  was  he,  and  so  difficult  was  it  to 
approach  him  near  enough  to  stab  him  without  getting  gored. 
On  the  chance  of  having  to  deal  with  boars,  it  is  as  well  to 
let  the  dog-boy  carry  a  short  spear. 

In  India,  when  out  shooting  from  an  elephant,  I  once 
shot  a  boar,  paralyzing  his  hind-quarters  without  killing  him. 
I  had  been  having  good  sport,  and  had  only  two  or  three 
bullets  left.  With  the  prospect  of  still  needing  these,  I  did 
not  like  to  waste  a  ball  on  an  animal  unable  to  move,  and 
thought  of  getting  down  to  despatch  him  with  my  knife. 

"Stop,"  said  the  mahout,  when  he  learned  my  intention  ; 
"  that  is  quite  unnecessary.  I  will  tell  the  elephant  to  kill  him." 

The  mahout  accordingly  communicated  his  instructions 
to  the  elephant,  who  evidently  did  not  relish  them.  The 
more  the  mahout  urged  him  to  advance  on  the  boar,  the 
more  the  latter  showed  his  angry  tusks,  and  the  more  the 
elephant  backed  away  from  him.  Suddenly,  as  the  result 
of  repeated  goading,  the  latter  seemed  to  make  up  his  great 
mind.  He  wheeled  sharply  round,  backed  upon  the  boar, 
got  him  between  his  hind  legs,  and  fairly  ground  him  up — 
I  heard  all  his  bones  cracking. 

A  very  different  kind  of  sport  from  that  I  have  been  de- 
scribing at  Newera  Ellia,  is  to  be  had  in  the  flat  country  in 
the  northern  province  of  Ceylon.  One  of  the  pleasantest 
shooting-trips  I  ever  made,  was  in  company  with  a  friend — 
now  the  governor  of  a  West  India  island  —  in  this  part  of 
the  country.     We  took  a  tent,  a  first-rate  cook,  and  a  train 


I20  EPISODES    IN    A    LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

of  a  dozen  or  more  men  to  carry  our  baggage,  bedding, 
drinkables,  and  condiments,  trusting  entirely  to  our  guns  for 
the  staple  of  existence  for  the  whole  party.  As  the  game  is 
most  abundant  in  a  region  almost  totally  uninhabited,  we 
could  not  rely  upon  the  resources  of  the  natives.  We  were 
then  in  the  dry  season,  when  the  only  water-supply  is  con- 
tained in  ponds,  or  tanks,  as  they  are  called.  Many  of  these 
dry  up,  and  those  that  contain  water,  being  far  apart,  become 
the  resort  of  the  wild  animals  inhabiting  a  wide  range  of 
country.  The  pleasantest  time  to  shoot  is  at  night:  in  the 
first  place,  because  it  is  so  fearfully  hot  that  it  is  almost  im- 
possible to  be  out  during  the  day  between  nine  in  the  morn- 
ing and  five  in  the  afternoon  ;  and  in  the  second,  because 
one  is  certain  to  see  a  much  greater  variety  of  game,  and  to 
have  a  much  better  chance  at  them. 

Our  plan  of  operations  was  to  pitch  our  tent  in  the  sha- 
diest grove  we  could  find  near  a  tank.  We  then  had  two 
circular  holes  dug  in  the  ground  at  a  convenient  distance 
apart  on  the  edge  of  the  tank — each  hole  four  or  five  feet 
in  diameter  and  about  two  feet  deep.  Round  these  we  piled 
brushwood  a  foot  high.  This  gave  us  a  screen  about  three 
feet  high,  and  in  these  holes  we  lay  in  ambush,  A  brilliant 
moon  is  of  course  indispensable  for  this  kind  of  sport ;  and 
to  assist  our  aim  we  whitened  the  sights  of  our  rifles.  Then, 
after  a  good  dinner,  we  sallied  forth,  each  accompanied  by  a 
native,  who  carried  a  bottle  of  strong  cold  tea,  some  sand- 
wiches, and  some  dry  elephant's  droppings,  to  serve  as  tin- 
der and  keep  a  spark  in  all  night  for  our  pipes.  I  have 
counted  the  following  different  specimens  of  game  come 
down  to  drink  in  the  course  of  the  night :  elephants — a  herd 
of  sixteen — several  buffaloes,  a  cheetah,  two  bears,  some  elk 
and  wild  boar,  and  a  large  herd  of  spotted  deer,  besides 
hog-deer,  porcupines,  and  smaller  animals.  The  latter  al- 
ways came  early  in  the  night ;  and  in  order  not  to  disturb 
the  larger  game,  which  generally  came  after  midnight,  we 
usually  refrained  from  firing  at  them.     The  deer  were  so 


SOME   SPORTING    REMINISCENCES.  121 

numerous  that  it  was  always  easy  to  kill  two  or  three  by  day- 
light, so  we  reserved  the  moonlight  hours  for  nobler  sport. 
Even  when  the  elephants  came  down  it  was  more  interesting 
to  watch  them  than  to  shoot  them.  There  would  be  the 
fine  old  patriarch  with  his  harem,  and  the  young  ones  per- 
forming the  most  fantastic  aquatic  gambols  :  the  clumsy 
disportings  of  a  baby  elephant,  at  a  loss  to  know  how  to  give 
full  vent  to  the  exuberance  of  his  spirits,  is  one  of  the  most 
grotesque  sights  imaginable,  and  one  only  to  be  witnessed 
under  such  exceptional  conditions  as  I  have  described. 
Looking  through  a  peep-hole  in  the  brushwood  screen,  one 
could  watch  them  at  one's  leisure.  On  one  occasion,  on 
their  return  from  the  water,  in  which  they  had  been  paddling 
and  splashing  themselves,  to  the  jungle,  the  whole  herd 
would  have  walked  straight  into  the  hole  in  which  I  was 
squatting  had  I  not  shown  myself.  I  had  already  marked 
the  father  of  the  flock  as  the  one  I  intended  to  kill,  and  he 
was  not  ten  paces  from  me  when  I  fired.  He  stopped, 
while  the  herd  scattered,  and  fearing  he  would  charge,  I  gave 
him  the  second  barrel,  and  he  sank  ponderously  to  the  earth. 
In  my  excitement  I  did  not  stop  to  reload,  but  making  sure 
he  was  dead  rushed  out  to  secure  my  trophy.  I  had  just  got 
out  my  knife,  and  was  stretching  out  my  hand  to  lay  hold  of 
his  tail  to  cut  it  off,  when  to  my  disgust  he  slowly  rose  and 
w'alked  off  after  the  ladies,  leaving  me  amazed  and  con- 
founded, and  the  subject  of  a  good  deal  of  chaff  on  the  part 
of  my  companions.  I  was  more  lucky  with  a  wild-boar  an 
hour  or  two  afterwards.  He,  too,  was  approaching  me  in  a 
direct  line,  coming  from  the  jungle,  when  I  fired  at  him, 
upon  which  he  made  a  rush  straight  at  me.  The  impetus 
was  so  great  that,  though  he  received  the  second  barrel  full 
in  the  forehead,  he  actually  rolled  dead  into  the  hole.  So 
close  was  my  rifle  to  his  head  the  second  shot  that  his  hair 
was  all  singed  where  the  ball  had  entered.  I  have  killed 
several  wild-boar  at  different  times  in  my  life,  but  his  were 
the  largest  tusks  I  ever  got. 
6 


122  EPISODES    IN    A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

Feathered  game  were  no  less  abundant  and  varied.  There 
were  pea-fowl,  jungle-fowl — which  is  more  like  the  domestic 
fowl  than  any  other  wild  bird  I  know — and  various  kinds  of 
water-fowl,  from  which  it  may  be  inferred  that  we  fared 
sumptuously  every  day.  Our  cook,  who  was  really  an  artist, 
and  had  served  an  apprenticeship  under  a  French  chef  at 
Government  House,  found  ample  scope  for  his  talents,  and 
did  full  justice  to  his  training.  He  had  been  careful  before 
starting  to  lay  in  a  good  supply  of  sauces  and  flavorings. 
This  was  the  kind  of  menu  he  used  to  place  before  us  :  wild- 
boar's  head,  venison-pasty,  salmi  of  wild  duck,  roast  peacock 
with  buffalo-tongue,  and  curry  of  jungle-fowl.  Our  camp-fol- 
lowers rioted  in  good  living  ;  and  though,  including  servants 
and  horse-keepers,  they  numbered  sixteen  or  eighteen,  it  was 
impossible  for  them  to  consume  all  the  game  we  killed,  and 
this  in  spite  of  neither  of  us  being  remarkably  good  shots. 

The  most  singular  shot  I  ever  made  was  under  rather 
peculiar  conditions.  It  was  a  blazing  hot  day — I  should 
think  the  thermometer  must  have  been  over  a  hundred  in 
the  tent — and  I  was  lying  panting  on  my  bed,  in  a  state  of 
entire  nudity,  vainly  trying  to  get  a  wink  of  sleep,  in  antici- 
pation of  the  night-watch  in  store  for  me,  when  my  servant 
stealthily  crept  into  the  tent  with  the  intelligence  that  there 
was  a  flock  of  pea-fowl  just  outside.  He  held  the  flap  of 
the  tent  back,  and  there  they  were  strutting  about  within  a 
hundred  yards  of  it.  As  I  looked  they  seemed  to  be  tak- 
ing alarm,  and,  afraid  of  losing  them,  I  seized  my  rifle  and 
rushed  out  with  nothing  on.  It  was  useless  to  attempt  to 
stalk  them  —  the  plain  upon  which  they  were  was  a  hard 
surface  of  baked  cracked  clay,  with  scarcely  a  shrub  upon  it. 
The  only  plan  was  to  get  as  near  them  as  possible  —  not  an 
easy  matter,  for  they  took  to  running  too,  and  pea-fowl  can  run 
faster  than  one  has  any  idea  of  At  all  events  they  seemed 
to  me  to  do  so,  as,  with  bare  head  and  body  exposed  to  the 
scorching  rays  of  the  midday  sun,  I  hurried  on  in  pursuit, 
cutting  my  bare  feet  terribly  on  the  sharp  angles  of  the 


SOME   SPORTING   REMINISCENCES.  1 23 

cracked  clay.  At  last  they  took  to  wing,  and  I  brought 
down,  to  my  surprise,  a  splendid  bird  —  at  least  he  was 
splendid  to  look  at,  but  proved  rather  tough  to  eat,  for  he 
was  an  old  cock.  I  thought  of  clothing  myself  with  his 
feathers  so  as  to  be  able  to  return  to  the  camp  with  some 
decency,  but  it  might  have  looked  vainglorious,  considering 
the  wonderful  shot  I  had  made.  Indeed,  I  took  some  credit 
for  it  at  the  time,  for  it  is  not  everybody  who  has  knocked 
over  a  peacock  on  the  wing  at  a  hundred  yards  with  a  rifle, 
especially  with  nothing  on  ;  but  I  am  free  to  admit,  after  this 
lapse  of  time,  that  it  was  a  pure  fluke.  I  was  so  out  of 
breath  and  blinded  by  perspiration  at  the  moment  that  I 
fired  without  being  able  to  take  any  kind  of  aim.  In  India, 
where  pea-fowl  are  sacred,  they  are  perpetually  offering  the 
most  tantalizing  ^hots  to  the  sportsman,  who  is  unable  to 
take  advantage  of  themj  but  no  such  prejudice  exists  in 
Ceylon,  and  they  form  a  most  valuable  addition  to  the  larder. 
I  remember  once,  when  campaigning  with  the  Turkish 
army  in  the  provinces  of  the  Transcaucasus,  arriving  at 
Sugdidi,  the  capital  of  Mingrelia,  the  day  after  the  battle 
of  the  Ingour.  Finding  it  deserted,  and  provisions  scarce,  I 
went  out  on  a  foraging  expedition.  Thinking  that,  as  the 
palace  had  only  just  been  abandoned  by  the  Princess  Da- 
diani,  I  might  find  something  in  the  larder,  I  directed  my 
steps  in  that  direction,  but  found  Turkish  sentries  at  every 
ingress.  Suddenly  I  heard  the  scream  of  a  peacock,  and 
ray  Ceylon  experience  recurred  vividly  to  my  mind.  What 
a  contribution  to  our  mess  he  would  be,  I  thought,  if  I  could 
only  get  hold  of  him  !  Shooting  him  in  the  gardens  of  the 
palace  was  out  of  the  question  ;  indeed,  I  found  that  the  one 
he  was  in  was  enclosed  with  a  high  wall.  Scrambling  to  the 
top  of  it  by  the  aid  of  the  branches  of  a  tree,  I  saw  several 
members  of  his  family  strutting  about.  Now,  it  so  happened 
I  had  provided  myself  with  a  hook  and  line  with  tiie  view 
of  also  trying  my  luck  in  the  river,  and  as  I  had  a  piece  of 
bread  also  in  my  pocket,  the  notion  occurred,  to  me  of  fish- 


124  EPISODES    IN    A   LIFE    OF   ADVENTURE. 

ing  for  one  of  these  majestic  birds  from  the  top  of  the  gar- 
den wall.  This  idea  I  immediately  put  into  practice,  and 
in  a  few  moments  my  efforts  were  rewarded,  and  I  was  gin- 
gerly hauling  up  a  tender  young  hen,  in  an  agony  lest  her 
weight  and  struggles  should  break  the  line  before  I  got  her 
safely  landed.  A  night  or  two  afterwards  I  was  dining  with 
Omer  Pasha,  and  recommended  him  to  try  one  of  the  prin- 
cess's pea-fowl,  a  hint  which  resulted  in  my  partaking  of  one 
at  his  table  shortly  afterwards. 

In  Ceylon,  as  a  rule,  the  game  is  so  abundant  that  one  is 
never  reduced  to  experimenting  on  strange  diet.  I  once 
dined  off  young  monkey,  which  is  something  like  rabbit,  but 
immeasurably  superior  to  it.  Travelling  in  the  wilds  of 
America,  I  lived  for  some  time  on  bear-meat,  which  is  ex- 
cellent ;  and  once  the  entire  rations  for  the  day  for  four  of 
us  consisted  of  a  jay,  a  magpie,  and  a  woodpecker.  During 
the  last  days  of  the  siege  of  Paris  I  tried  the  dainties  which 
were  then  in  vogue ;  but  they  were  so  far  disguised  by  the 
exercise  of  culinary  skill  that  they  all  tasted  very  good.  It 
requires  a  little  practice  to  recognize  at  once  the  difference 
between  dog,  cat,  and  rat,  if  they  are  all  prepared  with  equal 
care  and  delicac3^  One  of  my  sporting  friends  in  Ceylon, 
camping  out  with  his  pack,  and  depending  solely  upon  their 
exertions,  succeeded,  thanks  to  the  talent  and  ingenuity  of 
his  cook,  in  giving  some  British  tourists  who  paid  him  a  visit 
a  most  varied  mmti.  There  was  m  de  Tcau,Jikt  de  bxuf^ 
cbtelettes  en  papiUotes,  poulet  saute ^  and  I  don't  know  what  else 
besides.  It  was  some  time  before  his  guests  discovered 
that,  under  these  high-sounding  names,  they  were  eating 
various  preparations  of  elk.  If  it  is  the  tailor  who  makes 
the  man,  it  is  the  cook  who  makes  the  beast.  In  China  and 
Japan  diet  is  proverbially  attended  with  the  greatest  uncer- 
tainty, and  I  never  dined  with  a  native  of  either  of  these 
countries  without  suffering  for  it  the  next  day.  On  one  oc- 
casion I  was  given  a  soup  in  which  was  floating  what  ap- 
peared to  be.  pieces  of  vermicelli,  chopped  in  lengths  of 


SOME   SPORTING    REMINISCENCES.  1 25 

about  an  inch.  On  inquiring  what  these  little  stringlike 
substances  were,  I  was  informed  they  were  rock-leeches  ! 

But  to  return  to  our  camp  by  the  tank-side.  I  never  in 
any  part  of  the  world  saw  so  many  deer  as  there  were  in  its 
neighborhood.  The  country  was  flat  and  park-like,  the  dif- 
ference being  that  there  was  only  a  little  burned-up  grass,  and 
that  the  trees  were  for  the  most  part  represented  by  thorny 
bushes,  from  ten  to  fifteen  feet  high,  dotted  about  it.  Among 
these,  large  herds  of  deer  were  constantly  feeding;  and  they 
had  been  so  little  molested  that  it  was  no  difficult  matter  to 
stalk  them. 

The  tanks  abounded  in  alligators,  who  came  ashore  to  bask 
in  the  sun,  all  their  heads  turned  towards  the  water  except 
the  watcher,  whose  face  was  turned  landwards.  When  he 
gave  the  signal  of  danger  there  was  a  general  stampede  into 
the  tank.  They  were  so  numerous  that  we  did  not  think 
them  worth  powder  and  ball,  and  their  horny  hides  made  it 
more  trouble  to  kill  them  than  they  were  worth.  Once,  when 
we  were  walking  home,  I  saw  my  friend,  who  was  walking 
parallel  to  myself  on  the  other  side  of  the  tank,  which  was 
about  fifty  yards  broad,  take  a  shot  at  an  alligator  right  in 
front  of  him  ;  an  instant  afterwards  I  heard  the  ball  crash 
into  the  branches  of  a  tree  under  which  I  was  walking.  It 
had  been  deflected  at  right  angles  from  the  reptile's  back, 
and  I  had  a  narrow  escape  in  consequence.  There  is  a 
method  of  catching  alligators  which  I  once  saw  practised  in 
the  southern  part  of  the  island,  which  affords  some  sport  to 
those  who  are  indifferent  to  the  suffering  it  entails.  You 
take  a  live  puppy,  and  strap  him  on  to  a  raft,  formed  of  two 
pieces  of  tough  wood  lashed  in  the  form  of  a  cross.  You 
sharpen  all  the  four  points  of  this  cross,  and  fasten  to  it  a 
hank  of  twine  a  yard  long ,  to  this  you  attach  a  rope.  You 
then  float  your  puppy,  who  is  calling  attention  to  his  unhappy 
predicament  by  yelping  loudly,  on  a  still  pool  or  backwater 
of  the  stream,  and  tie  the  end  of  the  rope  to  a  tree.  You 
then  see  that  your  revolver  is  handy,  and,  with  half  a  dozen 


126  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

or  more  natives,  you  sit  under  the  tree  and  watch.  In  a  few 
moments  a  pair  of  enormous  jaws  appear  above  the  surface 
of  the  water,  the  puppy  disappears  into  them,  but  they  do 
not  close  with  the  facility  with  which  they  opened,  for  the 
cross  has  stuck  in  the  brute's  throat,  and  the  strands  of  the 
hank  of  twine  have  got  between  his  teeth.  You  now  lay  on 
to  the  rope  with  a  will,  and  slowly  draw  the  reluctant  mon- 
ster to  shore,  while  he  lashes  the  water  with  his  tail  in  impo- 
tent rage.  When  you  have  got  him  on  shore,  you  keep  at  a 
respectful  distance,  and  make  ball-practice  with  your  revolver 
at  his  eye.  If  you  keep  on  doing  this  long  enough,  you  finally 
kill  him.  The  alligators  in  some  of  the  rivers  of  Ceylon  are 
so  voracious  and  numerous  that  the  natives,  who  are  very 
fond  of  bathing,  stake  off  their  bathing-places.  From  these 
strongholds  you  can  safely  taunt  an  alligator,  should  he  come 
and  poke  his  nose  between  the  bars,  and  sniff  your  tempting 
flavor — even  jobbing  at  it  with  a  knife.  Near  the  mouths 
of  the  rivers  I  have  had  places  pointed  out  to  me  by  the  na- 
tives where  they  said  it  was  safe  to  bathe,  as  the  water  was 
too  salt  for  the  alligators  and  too  fresh  for  the  sharks.  My 
impression  is,  had  I  made  the  experiment,  that  I  should  have 
found  them  both  there. 

I  once  made  rather  an  interesting  shooting  excursion  to 
a  rarely  visited  island,  called  Karative,  on  the  western  coast 
of  Ceylon.  It  was  evidently  once  a  mere  sandbank,  and 
though  it  is  fifteen  miles  in  length,  it  narrows  in  places  to  a 
width  of  fifteen  or  twenty  yards,  the  sea  in  rough  weather 
making  a  clean  breach  over  it.  In  parts  it  is  more  than  a 
mile  wide,  and  is  covered  with  a  low,  thick  jungle,  with 
patches  of  open.  It  is  inhabited  only  by  a  few  fishermen. 
It  is  well  stocked  with  deer,  buffalo,  and  wild  black  cattle. 
These  latter  are  doubtless  the  descendants  of  cattle  that 
were  originally  tame,  but  it  must  have  been  very  long  ago, 
for  their  fine  delicate  limbs  and  active  motions,  and  uniformly 
black  color,  present  marked  characteristics  of  difference  from 
tame  cattle ;  while  their  great  shyness  renders  them  an  ex- 


SOME   SPORTING    REMINISCENCES.  12  7 

r 

tremely  difficult  animal  to  shoot.  I  only  managed  to  bag 
one,  which  I  stalked  after  rather  an  original  fashion.  The 
herd  were  grazing  in  the  open,  so  far  from  any  jungle  that  it 
seemed  impossible  to  get  near  them.  It  was  a  perfectly  still 
day  ;  the  sea  was  like  glass,  as  it  generally  was  on  the  lee 
side  of  the  island  ;  and  they  were  not  above  fifty  yards  from 
its  edge;  so  I  determined  to  stalk  them  from  the  sea.  It 
was  a  nice  sandy  bottom,  which  did  not  deepen  too  abruptly, 
and  when  I  had  waded  in  about  fifty  yards  I  found  myself  up 
to  the  armpits.  I  had  to  wade  for  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  mile, 
always  keeping  nothing  but  my  head  and  shoulders  visible, 
before  I  found  myself  opposite  the  herd,  tormented  the  while 
by  the  fear  that  some  sporting  shark  might  consider  me  as 
good  game  as  I  thought  the  black  cattle.  Then,  crawling 
carefully  shoreward,  I  got  an  easy  shot  at  about  eighty  yards, 
and  knbcked  over  a  fine  young  bull.  We  also  stalked  suc- 
cessfully, in  the  course  of  two  days'  shooting  here,  a  couple 
of  wild  buffalo.  The  natives  made  a  very  novel  suggestion : 
they  were  great  fishers  of  porpoises,  which  they  captured  for 
the  sake  of  the  oil,  and  possessed  in  consequence  a  quantity 
of  strong  porpoise -nets.  These  they  proposed  to  stretch 
across  a  narrow  isthmus,  from  sea  to  sea,  and,  staking  them 
firmly,  to  drive  the  deer  into  them.  As,  when  thus  stretched 
and  staked,  they  would  be  about  eight  feet  high,  there  would 
be  no  chance  of  escape  for  the  deer.  At  each  end  of  the 
net  men  were  stationed,  who  concealed  themselves,  as  we 
did  ourselves,  while  the  drive  was  in  progress,  so  as  to  pre- 
vent the  deer,  when  they  saw  their  danger,  making  a  rush  for 
the  sea.  It  was  a  moment  of  great  excitement,  as  we  heard 
the  crackling  of  the  jungle  in  advance  of  the  beaters  betoken 
the  presence  of  game  ;  then  out  rushed  half  a  dozen  noble 
animals.  We  sprang  to  our  feet  as  they  crossed  the  narrow 
patch  of  open  at  full  speed,  and,  turning  neither  to  the  right 
nor  left,  dashed  headlong  into  the  net.  In  a  moment  all 
was  confusion  ;  there  was  a  heap  of  deer  entangling  them- 
selves more  and  more  in  their  frantic  struggles  to  break  loose 


128  EPISODES    IN    A   LIFE    OF   ADVENTURE. 

and  escape,  while  the  men  ran  up  with  ropes  to  bind  them 
and  make  them  captive  :  this  was  no  easy  matter,  as  their 
sharp  hoofs  and  antlers  inflict  nasty  wounds  ;  however,  it 
was  at  last  successfully  accomplished.  I  shall  never  forget 
the  appearance  which  that  struggling  mass  of  men  and  deer 
presented,  but  I  cannot  now  call  to  mind  how  many  we  cap- 
tured— the  stag  with  the  finest  antlers,  I  know,  escaped. 

Bufiflilo  are  very  dangerous  animals  to  shoot,  I  think  more 
so  than  elephants,  as  it  is  more  difficult  to  get  away  from 
them  when  they  charge.  I  was  once  charged  by  one  when 
riding  peacefully  on  horseback  and  entirely  unarmed,  and  he 
g-ave  me  an  unpleasantly  severe  chase  across  country  before 
I  could  shake  him  off. 

The  easiest  way  to  shoot  bears  is  to  smoke  them  out  of 
the  holes  or  caves  which  they  use  as  sleeping-places,  and 
which  the  natives  always  know,  and  to  lie  in  wait  for  them  at 
the  mouth  ;  or  to  watch  for  them  by  tanks — though  probably 
the  commonest  method  is  to  drive  them.  This  is  the  plan 
adopted  in  Turkey.  Seven  years  ago,  while  staying  at  Con- 
stantinople, I  was  invited  to  join  a  bear-shooting  exjDedition. 
News  had  arrived  that  they  were  numerous  on  the  peninsula 
of  Guemlik,  in  the  Sea  of  Marmora,  and  good  sport  was 
promised  us  as  a  certainty.  Nearly  twenty  years  had  elapsed 
since  I  had  fired  off  a  gun.  I  had  never  used  a  breech- 
loader in  my  life,  for  they  had  come  into  fashion  after  my 
day,  and  I  had  lost  all  kind  of  sporting  enthusiasm  ;  but  the 
trip  promised  to  be  enjoyable  so  far  as  climate,  new  country, 
and  fine  scenery  were  concerned,  and  I  was  tempted  by  the 
society  of  four  agreeable  companions  to  make  one  of  the 
party,  rather  as  a  spectator  than  as  an  active  participator  in 
the  sport,  which  was  the  more  reasonable  as  I  was  the  only 
one  of  the  party  who  had  ever  shot  a  bear.  We  landed  at 
Guemlik,  where  H.M.S.  Fawn,  then  surveying  the  Sea  of 
Marmora,  was  lying  at  anchor,  and  adding  two  or  three  of 
the  officers  to  our  party,  made  a  night  sail  in  a  native  boat 
to  the  small  fishing-village  from  which  we  were  to  strike  in- 


SOME    SPORTING    REMINISCENCES.  1 29 

land.  From  this  point  we  advanced  in  the  early  morning 
through  lovely  scenery  some  three  or  four  miles  into  the  in- 
terior, and  found  ourselves  in  the  midst  of  a  beautifully 
wooded,  rolling,  upland  country,  with  open  grassy  valleys, 
rich  soil,  and  abundance  of  water,  almost  totally  uninhabited, 
and  only  thirty  miles,  as  the  crow  flies,  from  Constantinople. 
It  is  one  of  the  anomalies  of  Turkey  that  a  region  twenty 
miles  in  length  by  about  ten  broad,  comprising  fine  forests 
and  splendid  agricultural  land,  should  be  lying  waste  within 
so  short  a  distance  of  the  capital  of  the  empire  and  of  the 
market  which  it  affords.  However,  had  it  not  been  so,  we 
should  have  had  to  go  farther  afield  for  our  bears.  As  it 
was,  with  a  good  gang  of  beaters,  we  toiled  all  day  witiiout 
any  result  except  a  few  false  alarms.  En  revanche  we  had 
splendid  appetites  and  sound  slumbers  on  leaf-beds  under 
the  blue  canopy  of  heaven,  for  we  had  brought  no  tents  with 
us.  Meantime  I  had  so  far  caught  the  infection  that  I  had 
accepted  the  offer  of  his  second  gun  from  a  friend,  and  had 
occupied  the  post  assigned  to  me  at  each  beat  with  the  most 
sportsmanlike  conscientiousness.  Next  day  we  tried  some 
new  country.  I  had  expressly  asked  the  master  of  the 
hounds  to  post  the  others  in  the  best  stations,  and  was  oc- 
cupying the  least  likely  place  in  one  of  the  drives,  my  thoughts 
at  the  time  far  away  from  bear-shooting,  when  the  sudden 
clamor  of  the  dogs  right  in  front  of  me  roused  my  attention. 
There  was  no  doubt  about  it  this  time.  I  was  standing  on 
the  slope  of  a  valley,  bare  except  for  a  few  bushes,  near  a 
path  which  led  across  a  little  stream  into  a  wood  on  the  op- 
posite slope,  which  was  now  resounding  with  the  shouts  of 
beaters  and  the  yelping  of  dogs.  As  I  fixed  my  eyes  on  the 
point  where  the  path  entered  the  wood,  I  saw  bruin  emerge. 
Slowly  and  deliberately  he  trotted  up  the  path  straight  tow- 
ards me;  slowly  and  deliberately  I  retired  behind  a  bush 
about  six  yards  from  the  path,  so  as  to  screen  myself  from 
his  observation  and  have  a  shot,  which,  even  after  twenty 
years  without  practice,  it  would  be  impossible  to  miss.  The 
6* 


130  EPISODES   IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

bear  did  not  quicken  his  pace,  and  he  was  exactly  abreast 
of  me.  I  fired — at  least  I  pulled  the  trigger.  The  first  bar- 
rel responded  with  a  gentle  tick ;  the  second  followed  suit. 
I  almost  fancied  I  could  see  the  bear  wink.  At  all  events, 
he  did  not  quicken  his  pace,  and  I  had  almost  time  to  put  a 
couple  of  cartridges  into  my  gun — which,  I  need  not  say,  did 
not  go  off  for  the  simple  reason  that  there  was  nothing  in  it 
— before  he  disappeared  into  some  brushwood.  Thus  my 
first  and  only  experience  of  breech-loaders  has  not  been  en- 
couraging. But  how  was  I,  who  had  never  been  out  with  a 
party  of  breech-loading  sportsmen,  to  suppose  that,  after  I 
had  loaded  my  own  gun,  and  leaned  it  against  a  tree  during 
luncheon,  somebody  else's  servant  would  come  and  abstract 
the  cartridges  and  put  them  in  his  pocket,  and  then  after 
luncheon  hand  me  the  gun  without  saying  a  word  about  it  ? 
I  had  been  accustomed  to  consider  that  when  I  had  loaded 
a  gun  myself  it  remained  loaded  unless  I  fired  it  off.  The 
idea  that  any  one  else  would  consider  himself  entitled  to 
draw  the  charge  and  pocket  the  cartridges  never  entered  my 
head  ;  but  it  seems  it  is  the  custom,  for  on  my  remonstrating 
with  the  man,  who  was  an  Englishman,  he  replied, 

"Well,  sir,  I  thought  you  would  ha'  looked  to  see  whether 
the  gun  was  loaded  before  you  undertook  to  fire  it  off." 

So  I  had  to  accept  the  situation,  and  the  chaff  by  which  it 
was  accompanied  ;  and  as  we  none  of  us  had  another  chance, 
I  established  my  reputation  as  a  "  duffer,"  and  we  returned 
to  Constantinople  empty-handed. 

The  most  magnificent  country  for  sport,  because  the  game 
is  both  larger  and  of  a  rarer  description  than  in  Ceylon,  is 
in  the  Nepaulese  Terai.  Here,  besides  elephants,  of  which 
there  are  great  numbers,  there  are  tigers  and  rhinoceroses, 
and  many  other  kinds  of  large  game.  In  one  of  our  beats 
here,  which  were  organized  on  a  large  scale  by  the  late  Jung 
Bahadoor,  whose  guest  I  was  at  the  time,  we  came  upon 
traces  of  a  rhinoceros,  and  were  in  great  hopes  that  we  should 
enclose  him  in  the  huge  net  of  beaters  that  had  been  spread 


SOME    SPORTING   REMINISCENCES.  I3I 

to  surround  the  game,  and  which  consisted  of  four  hundred 
elephants  and  two  regiments  of  soldiers  ;  but,  to  my  great 
disappointment,  he  managed  to  break  through  and  get  awa}'. 
We  got,  however,  in  the  course  of  this  beat,  a  couple  of  tigers, 
and  several  deer  and  wild  boar.  This  is  the  only  country  in 
v/hich  the  singular  sport  can  be  obtained  of  hunting  wild  ele- 
phants with  tame  ones,  and  capturing  them  alive — an  experi- 
ence of  which  the  Prince  of  Wales  partook,  also  under  the 
auspices  of  Jung  Bahadoor,  on  the  occasion  of  his  visit  to 
India.  His  royal  highness,  however,  witnessed  it  as  a  spec- 
tator on  horseback,  which  is  exciting  enough,  but  nothing  to 
be  compared  to  participating  in  it  as  an  active  combatant  on 
the  back  of  one  of  the  elephants  engaged  in  the  melee.  When 
I  proposed  that  I  should  be  allowed  to  make  this  experiment 
when  I  was  with  Jung  Bahadoor  in  the  winter  of  185 1,  he  at 
first  absolutely  refused,  on  the  ground  that  it  would  be  too 
dangerous  for  a  novice — and  was  at  last  only  induced  to  con- 
sent on  my  acquitting  myself  creditably  at  a  rehearsal,  when 
I  was  sent  among  the  trees  on  the  bare  back  of  an  elephant, 
with  nothing  but  a  rope  to  hold  on  by,  and  made  to  dodge 
the  branches,  as  he  was  sent  through  them  at  his  full  speed. 
But  this  was  nothing  to  the  difficulty  of  arriving  sound  in 
wind  and  limb  at  the  end  of  the  chase  on  the  following  day, 
when  the  elephant  I  bestrode,  or  rather  upon  which  I  squatted 
monkey-fashion,  formed  one  of  a  band  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty,  tearing  at  a  clumsy  run  through  the  jungle  after  the 
wild  herd,  which  it  finally  overtook,  and  with  which  it  en- 
gaged in  a  pitched  battle.  I  shall  never  forget  the  uproar 
and  excitement  of  that  singular  conflict ;  the  trumpeting  of 
the  elephants — the  screams  of  the  mahouts — the  firing  by  the 
soldiers  of  blank-cartridge — the  crashing  of  the  branches  as 
the  huge  monsters,  with  their  trunks  curled  up,  butted  into 
one  another  like  rams,  and  their  riders  deftly  threw  lassoes 
of  rope  over  their  unwieldy  heads — formed  a  combination  of 
sounds  and  of  sights  calculated  to  leave  a  lasting  impression. 
It  is  so  difficult  to  take  prisoners  under  these  conditions 


132  EPISODES   IN    A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

that  we  thought  we  did  well  in  capturing  four  out  of  a  herd 
of  twelve.  The  mahout  of  the  elephant  I  was  on  had  par- 
ticularly distinguished  himself  in  one  encounter,  and  pre- 
sented me  with  the  splintered  tusk  of  an  elephant  that  had 
been  broken  off  in  a  charge  upon  us,  as  a  trophy.  I  came 
home  utterly  exhausted  by  the  violent  exertion  which  had 
been  necessary  to  escape  being  smashed  to  pieces  by  over- 
hanging branches,  or  crushed  by  the  mob  of  jostling  ele- 
phants, which  must  have  inevitably  been  my  fate  had  I  lost 
my  grip  of  the  loop  of  rope  which  was  all  there  was  to  hold 
on  by.  In  order  the  better  to  cling  on,  I  had  taken  off  my 
shoes,  and  my  bleeding  hands  and  feet  bore  testimony  to  the 
violence  of  the  struggle  it  had  cost  me  to  retain  my  preca- 
rious position  ;  but  so  great  was  my  excitement  at  the  time 
that  I  only  discovered  afterwards  how  much  my  skin  was  the 
worse  for  wear. 

All  other  sport  in  India  of  which  I  have  partaken  pales 
by  comparison  with  this  experience,  though  I  know  of  noth- 
ing in  its  way  to  compare  with  a  good  day's  pig-sticking,  nor 
anything  more  disagreeably  agitating  than  tiger-shooting  on 
foot.  Not  being  utterly  reckless  of  existence,  I  was  only 
once  induced  to  share  in  this  pastime ;  and  as  I  felt  that  the 
chances  were  all  in  favor  of  the  tiger,  I  was  infinitely  re- 
lieved to  find  that  a  rustling  in  the  bushes  within  ten  yards 
of  me  proceeded  from  a  hyena,  into  which  I  did  the  unsports- 
manlike thing  of  firing  promptly,  thus  causing  the  tiger, 
which,  I  afterwards  discovered,  was  just  behind  him,  to  head 
back  upon  the  beaters,  and  break  through  them,  to  the  great 
disgust  of  my  poor  host,  a  most  daring  sportsman  and  infal- 
lible shot,  who  aftervs^ards  fell  a  victim  in  the  mutiny  under 
the  most  painful  circumstances.  It  was  under  his  auspices 
that  I  shot  my  first  and  only  blue  bull  or  nylgau,  an  ani- 
mal the  flesh  of  which  is  capital  eating. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  countries  I  ever  visited,  in  so 
far  as  large  game  is  concerned,  is  the  Malay  Peninsula.  I 
once  took  advantage  of  the  kind  invitation  of  the  Tuman- 


SOME   SPORTING   REMINISCENCES.  I33 

gong,  now  the  Sultan  of  Johore,  to  cross  over  from  Singapore 
into  his  territory,  and  found  on  my  arrival  at  a  village,  situ- 
ated on  a  river  a  short  distance  in  the  interior,  which  had 
been  recently  settled  by  Chinamen  engaged  in  the  cultiva- 
tion of  gambler,  that  the  whole  population  was  panic-stricken 
by  the  depredations  of  tigers.  No  fewer  than  fifty  men  had 
been  carried  off  by  these  ferocious  beasts  during  the  pre- 
ceding three  weeks  while  out  at  work.  On  one  day  alone 
five  had  disappeared,  and  the  graveyard  was  full  of  umbrellas, 
the  sign  that  the  bones  below  them  had  been  picked  by 
tigers.  Twenty  plantations  in  the  immediate  vicinity  were 
deserted  in  consequence ;  and  as  I  had  brought  my  rifle 
with  me,  I  proposed  going  to  one  of  these  with  a  live  bait, 
and  watching  for  a  marauder.  The  Chinamen  would  not 
hear  of  beating  the  jungle,  as  they  felt  convinced  that  they 
would  simply  fall  a  prey  to  the  tigers,  with  which  it  was  liter- 
ally swarming.  They  eagerly  accepted  the  other  proposi- 
tion, however,  and  soon  secured  a  couple  of  dogs,  who  were 
doomed  for  bait.  With  these  we  started  for  a  night-watch. 
Unfortunately,  we  had  scarcely  reached  the  deserted  plan- 
tation, from  which  three  men  had  been  taken  a  day  or 
two  previously,  when  the  sky  became  suddenly  overcast, 
and  the  rain  came  down  in  a  tropical  torrent,  putting 
all  hope  of  sport  out  of  the  question.  I  much  regretted 
I  had  not  time  to  prolong  my  visit  to  this  village,  as  by 
killing  tigers  here  one  would  have  been  rendering  a  real 
service  to  the  people ;  besides  this,  the  surrounding  coun- 
try was  full  of  other,  and,  in  some  respects,  more  interest- 
ing game. 

On  the  banks  of  these  muddy  rivers  the  sportsman,  if  he 
is  also  a  naturalist,  will  find  a  double  interest  in  bagging  a 
saladang  or  wild  water-ox,  a  species  peculiar  to  the  Malay 
Peninsula.  In  the  recesses  of  these  magnificent  but  gloomy 
forests  he  may  surprise  the  wary  tapir  ;  while  rhinoceroses 
are  abundant,  and  elephants  and  nearly  all  the  animals  known 
in  southern  India  and  Ceylon  are  to  be  found  besides.    I  do 


134  EPISODES    IN    A    LIFE    OF    ADVENTURE. 

not  know  how  it  may  be  now,  but  twenty-nine  years  ago, 
when  I  was  there,  these  jungles  were  untrodden  by  the 
sportsman,  and  I  feel  convinced  that  any  enterprising  Nim- 
rod  who  should  go  there  now  would  find  a  happy  hunting- 
ground. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

AN    EPISODE   WITH   GARIBALDI,  AND   AN    EXPERIENCE    IN 
MONTENEGRO. 

The  political  attention  of  Europe  was  chiefly  occupied 
during  the  early  part  of  the  year  i860  by  negotiations  of  a 
mysterious  character,  which  were  taking  place  between  the 
Emperor  Napoleon  and  Count  Cavour,  which  were  consum- 
mated at  Plombieres,  and  which  resulted  in  an  arrangement 
by  which,  in  return  for  the  services  France  had  rendered 
Italy  during  the  war  with  Austria,  and  no  doubt  with  a  view 
to  further  favors  to  come,  it  was  arranged  on  the  part  of 
Italy  that  Savoy  and  Nice  should  be  given  to  France,  pro- 
vided that  the  populations  of  those  provinces  expressed  their 
willingness  to  be  thus  transferred  from  one  crown  to  another. 
The  operation  was  one  which  I  thought  it  would  be  interest- 
ing to  witness,  as  I  felt  decidedly  sceptical  as  to  the  readi- 
ness of  a  population  thus  to  transfer  their  allegiance  from 
one  sovereign  to  another,  and  exchange  a  nationality  to 
which,  by  tradition  and  association,  they  were  attached,  for 
one  which  they  had  been  in  the  habit  of  regarding  hitherto 
rather  in  the  light  of  an  enemy  and  a  rival  than  as  a  friend, 
I  therefore  went  in  the  first  instance  to  Savoy,  satisfied  my- 
self that  my  suspicions  were  well  founded,  and  that  the  people 
in  voting  for  annexation  to  France  were  doing  so  under  the 
most  distinct  pressure  on  the  part  of  the  Italian  government 
and  its  officials  on  the  spot,  and  that  the  popular  sentiment 
was  decidedly  opposed  to  the  contemplated  transfer;  and 
then  proceeded  to  Turin,  with  the  intention  of  going  on  in 
time  to  be  present  at  the  voting  at  Nice,  after  having  con- 


136  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE   OF    ADVENTURE. 

ferred  with  certain  Nizzards  to  whoin  I  had  letters  of  intro- 
duction at  Turin,  where  the  Chambers  were  then  sitting.  It 
was  a  self-imposed  mission  from  first  to  last,  undertaken  part- 
ly to  gratify  curiosity,  partly  in  the  hope  that  I  might  be  able 
to  aid  those  who  desired  to  resist  annexation  to  France,  and 
with  whom  I  felt  a  strong  sympathy,  and  partly  to  obtain 
"copy"  wherewith  to  enlighten  the  British  public  as  to  the 
true  state  of  the  case.  This  I  did  to  the  best  of  my  ability 
at  the  time  ;*  but  it  was  not  possible  then  to  narrate  those 
more  private  incidents  which,  after  the  lapse  of  seven-and- 
twenty  years,  as  most  of  the  actors  are  dead,  and  the  whole 
affair  has  passed  into  history,  there  is  no  longer  any  indis- 
cretion in  referring  to. 

At  Turin  I  presented  my  letters  of  introduction  to  one  of 
the  deputies  from  Nice,  by  whom  I  was  most  kindly  received. 
Finding  how  strongly  my  sympathies  were  enlisted  in  the 
cause  of  his  countrymen,  he  introduced  me  to  several  Niz- 
zards, then  staying  in  Turin  for  the  purpose,  if  possible,  of 
thwarting  the  policy  of  Count  Cavour  in  so  far  as  the  trans- 
fer of  their  province  to  France  was  concerned.  It  is  due  to 
the  great  Italian  minister  and  patriot  to  say  that  no  one  re- 
gretted more  deeply  than  he  did  the  necessity  of  parting  with 
Nice,  and  of  forcing  from  the  inhabitants  of  that  province 
their  consent  to  their  separation  from  Italy.  It  was,  in  his 
view,  one  of  the  sacrifices  he  was  compelled  to  make  for  the 
unification  of  Italy  —  or  rather  the  price  which  the  emperor 
demanded  for  abstention  from  active  opposition  to  the  crea- 
tion of  a  United  Italy  ;  and  even  then.  Napoleon  never  an- 
licipated  that  it  would  ultimately  include  the  Papal  States 
and  the  kingdom  of  Naples.  But  inasmuch  as  it  had  been 
agreed  that  this  annexation  should  only  take  place  with  the 
free  consent  of  the  populations  concerned,  and  that,  pro- 
vided the  Italian  government  abstained  from  influencing  them 

*  "  Universal  Suffrage  and  Napoleon  the  Third."  By  Laurence  Oli- 
phant.     William  Blackwood  &  Sons,  Edinburgh  and  London. 


AN    EPISODE   WITH   GARIBALDI.  I37 

in  an  opposite  sense,  France  could  not  claim  the  provinces 
if  the  plebiscite  went  against  annexation,  the  Nizzards  main- 
tained that  the  unity  of  Italy  would  not  be  imperilled  by  al- 
lowing the  people  freedom  of  choice,  and  that  it  was  not  fair 
of  the  government  to  throw  all  its  influence,  into  the  scale, 
and  to  coerce  them  in  the  direction  opposed  to  their  wishes. 
It  was  probably  a  question  upon  which  no  one  was  really 
competent  to  form  an  opinion  but  Cavour  himself.  In  all 
likelihood  the  understanding  between  that  astute  Italian  and 
the  French  emperor  was,  that  the  provinces  must  be  given 
to  France  by  fair  means  or  foul,  and  that  it  was  Cavour's 
business  to  make  them  appear  fair.  No  one  knew  better  than 
the  emperor  how  plebiscites  might  be  arranged.  However, 
this  is  only  a  conjecture :  what  is  certain  is,  that  the  Nizzards 
whom  I  met  at  Turin  were  as  patriotic  as  any  other  Italians, 
and  did  not  wish  to  imperil  Italian  unity  for  the  sake  of  Nice. 
They  only  wanted  the  terms  of  the  convention  with  the 
French  emperor  fairly  carried  out,  and  the  people  of  Nice  to 
be  allowed  to  vote  in  entire  freedom. 

I  confess  I  felt  somewhat  of  a  conspirator  when,  on  the 
second  night  after  my  arrival  at  Turin,  in  response  to  an  in- 
vitation to  meet  the  Nizzard  Committee,  I  was  shown  up  a 
long,  dark  stair  to  a  large  upper  chamber,  somewhere  near 
the  top  of  the  house,  where  some  fourteen  or  sixteen  men 
were  seated  at  a  table.  At  its  head  was  a  red-bearded, 
slightly  bald  man,  in  a  poncho,  to  whom  my  conductor  intro- 
duced me.  This  was  General  Garibaldi,  who,  as  a  native 
of  Nice  himself,  was  the  most  active  and  energetic  of  the 
committee,  and  most  intolerant  of  the  political  escamotagc, 
as  he  called  it,  by  which  his  birthplace  was  to  be  handed 
over  to  France.  The  point  which  the  committee  was  dis- 
cussing when  I  entered  was,  whether  it  were  worth  while  at- 
tempting any  parliamentary  opposition,  or  whether  it  would 
not  be  better  to  organize  an  emcutc  at  Nice,  which  would  at 
all  events  have  the  effect  of  postponing  the  vote,  and  of  prov- 
ing a  strong  feeling  of  opposition  on  the  part  of  the  people. 


138  EPISODES    IN    A    LIFE    OF   ADVENTURE. 

Garibaldi  was  decidedly  in  favor  of  this  latter  course. 
Though  a  member  of  the  Chamber  himself,  he  had  no  belief, 
he  said,  in  being  able  to  persuade  it  to  take  any  view  that 
the  government  would  oppose  ;  nor,  in  fact,  did  he  see  any 
form  of  parliamentary  opposition  open  to  him.  His  dislike 
and  contempt  for  all  constitutional  methods  of  proceeding, 
and  strong  preference  for  the  rough-and-ready  way  of  solving 
the  question  which  he  advocated,  were  very  amusing.  The 
strongest  argument  in  favor  of  the  course  he  proposed  lay  in 
the  fact  that  on  the  Sunday  week,  or  in  ten  days  from  the 
night  of  our  meeting,  the  vote  was  to  take  place  at  Nice,  and 
if  peaceable  measures  were  persisted  in  much  longer,  there 
would  be  no  time  to  organize  violent  ones.  I  had  remained 
silent  during  the  whole  discussion,  when  Garibaldi  suddenly 
turned  to  me  and  asked  me  my  opinion.  I  ventured  to  say 
that  I  thought  constitutional  methods  should  be  exhausted 
before  violent  ones  were  resorted  to. 

"Oh,"  he  said,  impatiently,  '''' interpellatiojie,  sempre  inter- 
pellatione !  I  suppose  a  question  in  the  Chamber  is  what 
you  propose  :  what  is  the  use  of  questions  ?  what  do  they 
ever  come  to  ?" 

"  There  is  one  question,"  I  said,  "  which  I  think  you  should 
ask  before  you  take  the  law  into  your  own  hands,  and  if  you 
are  beaten  on  that,  you  will  be  able  to  feel  a  clearer  con- 
science in  taking  stronger  measures,  for  the  Chamber  will, 
from  our  English  constitutional  standpoint,  have  put  them- 
selves in  the  wrong." 

The  fact  of  my  being  an  Englishman  made  me  an  author- 
ity in  a  small  way  in  the  matter  of  parliamentary  proceed- 
ings, and  I  was  eagerly  asked  to  formulate  the  motion  which 
I  proposed  should  be  laid  before  the  Chamber.  I  do  not  at 
this  distance  of  time  remember  the  exact  wording,  but  the 
gist  of  it  was  that  the  Franco-Italian  Convention,  which  pro- 
vided for  a  plebiscite  to  be  taken  at  Nice,  should  be  submit- 
ted to  the  Chamber  before  the  vote'was  taken,  as  it  seemed 
contrary  to   all   constitutional  practice   that  a  government 


AN    EPISODE   WITH   GARIBALDI.  I39 

should  make  an  arrangement  with  a  foreign  power  by  which 
two  valuable  provinces  were  to  be  transferred  to  that  power, 
without  the  Chambers  of  the  country  thus  to  be  deprived  of 
them  ever  having  an  opportunity  of  seeing  the  document  so 
disposing  of  them.  It  took  Garibaldi  some  time  to  get  this 
point  into  his  head,  and  when  he  did  he  only  gave  it  a  very 
qualified  approval.  However,  it  commended  itself  to  the 
majority  of  those  present,  was  put  into  proper  shape,  and, 
finally.  Garibaldi  consented  to  speak  to  it,  but  in  such  a  half- 
hearted way  that  I  did  not  feel  much  confidence  in  the  re- 
sult. 

The  next  night  I  dined  with  Cavour,  but  avoided  all  allu- 
sion to  the  Nice  question  ;  indeed,  when  I  thought  of  the 
magnificent  services  he  had  rendered  to  Italy,  of  the  extraor- 
dinary genius  he  had  displayed  in  the  conduct  of  affairs,  and 
of  his  disinterested  patriotism,  my  conscience  smote  me  even 
for  the  small  share  I  was  taking  in  an  intrigue  against  his 
policy.  But  then  his  policy  was  one  of  intrigue  from  first  to 
last — of  splendid  intrigue  it  is  true,  in  which  the  emperor  of 
the  French  was  to  a  great  extent  caught  in  his  own  toils — 
and  one  intrigue  more  or  less  would  not  matter,  provided  we 
could  succeed  without  injuring  the  cause  we  all  had  at  heart. 
Indeed,  I  am  convinced  that  Cavour  in  his  secret  soul  would 
have  been  pleased  at  the  success  of  a  conspiracy  which  would 
have  saved  Nice  to  Italy,  if  it  could  have  been  made  plain 
that  he  had  no  complicity  in  it ;  though  he  would  probably 
have  found  a  great  difficulty  in  making  the  French  emperor 
believe  this,  and  it  might  have  involved  him  in  serious  com- 
plications. However,  the  game  was  too  interesting  not  to 
take  a  hand  in  it,  even  if  it  were  a  very  insignificant  one  ;  and 
the  sympathy  that  I  felt  for  my  host,  which  his  charming 
manner  and  his  subtle  but  great  ability  was  ever  sure  to 
win  for  him,  in  no  way  conflicted  with  the  regard  I  was  al- 
ready beginning  to  conceive  for  blunt,  honest  Garibaldi,  with 
his  hatred  of  the  tortuous  methods  and  diplomatic  wiles  of 
the  great  minister.     Two  days  after  I  went  to  the  Chamber 


140  EPISODES    IN    A    LIFE    OF   ADVENTURE. 

to  hear  Garibaldi  speak  to  his  interpellation.  I  had  spent 
an  hour  or  two  with  him  in  the  interval  talking  it  over.  But 
certainly  politics  were  not  his  strong  point.  He  would  not 
make  a  note  or  prepare  his  ideas ;  he  told  me  several  times 
what  he  intended  to  say,  but  never  said  twice  the  same  thing, 
and  always  seemed  to  miss  the  principal  points.  I  was  not 
surprised,  therefore,  at  a  speech  which  brought  down  the 
House  with  cheers  from  its  patriotic  sentiments  and  glowing 
enthusiasm,  which  abounded  in  illogical  attack  upon  Cavour, 
but  which  never  really  touched  the  point  of  his  motion. 
Members  who  had  cheered  his  references  to  United  Italy 
could  quite  logically  vote  against  his  motion,  for  practically 
he  had  never  spoken  to  it ;  and  when  we  met  later,  after  an 
ignominious  defeat,  he  shrugged  his  shoulders  and  said, 

"There,  I  told  you  so;  that  is  what  your  fine  interpella- 
tions and  parliamentary  methods  always  come  to.  I  knew 
it  would  be  all  a  waste  of  time  and  breath." 

"  Not  so,"  I  said  ;  "  at  any  rate,  you  have  put  yourself  in 
the  right ;  you  have  asked  the  government  to  let  you  see  the 
treaty  under  which  Italy  is  to  be  despoiled  of  two  of  its  fair- 
est provinces,  and  they  have  refused.  They  have  decided 
to  hand  them  over  to  a  foreign  power,  without  giving  the 
country  a  chance  of  expressing  an  opinion  upon  the  bargain 
which  has  been  made,  or  of  knowing  what  it  is  to  get  in  re- 
turn. I  think,  in  default  of  this  information,  you  can  now, 
with  a  clear  conscience,  take  any  measures  which  seem  to 
you  desirable  to  prevent  this  act  of  arbitrary  spoliation." 

"  Meet  us  to-night,"  he  said,  "  and  we  will  talk  matters 
over." 

So  we  had  another  conference  in  the  upper  room,  and  all 
were  united  in  the  opinion  that  the  time  had  come  for  pre- 
venting the  plebiscite  from  being  taken  on  the  following  Sun- 
day. 

The  plan  proposed  was  a  simple  one,  and  did  not  involve 
any  serious  disturbance.  It  was  alleged  by  the  Nizzards 
present  that  the  local  officials  had  instructions  to  mislead 


AN    EPISODE   WITH    GARIBALDI.  I4I 

the  people,  by  telling  them'that  the  government  ordered  them 
to  vote  "Yes;"  and  that,  in  fact,  the  prefect  and  all  the  sub- 
ordinate employees  were  engaged  in  an  active  canvass  among 
the  peasantry,  who  did  not  understand  enough  of  the  ques- 
tion, which  had  never  been  explained  to  them,  to  take  a  line 
of  their  own  and  vote  "No"  against  the  wish  of  the  author- 
ities. It  was  maintained  that  a  fortnight  of  active  canvass- 
ing by  Garibaldi  and  the  Nice  committee,  with  other  patriots 
— who,  when  they  understood  it,  would  eagerly  embrace  the 
cause — would  suffice  not  only  to  enlighten  public  opinion, 
but  completely  to  change  it ;  and  that,  if  the  day  of  the  ple- 
biscite could  be  postponed  to  the  Sunday  fortnight,  the  ple- 
biscite might  safely  be  taken  on  that  day,  with  a  tolerable 
certainty  that  the  popular  vote  would  be  given  against  the 
annexation.  The  French  troops  were  at  this  juncture  on 
their  return,  after  the  peace  which  had  been  concluded  be- 
tween Austria  and  France  at  Solferino,  to  France,  via  the 
Riviera,  and  a  large  body  of  them  were  actually  at  Nice.  It 
had  been  arranged,  however,  that,  to  avoid  all  appearance  of 
compulsion,  the  town  should  be  entirely  denuded  of  troops 
on  the  day  of  the  plebiscite,  and  that  the  Italian  as  well  as 
the  French  soldiers  should  evacuate  it  for  the  day.  The 
coast  would  therefore  be  comparatively  clear  for  a  popular 
movement,  which,  after  all,  would  be  on  a  very  small  scale 
— for  all  that  it  was  intended  to  accomplish  was  to  wait  until 
the  vote  was  taken,  and  then,  before  the  contents  could  be 
counted,  to  smash  the  ballot-boxes,  thus  rendering  a  new 
ballot  necessary.  The  friends  of  Nice  at  Turin  would  then 
negotiate  with  the  government  to  have  the  plebiscite  taken  a 
fortnight  later  ;  and  they  trusted  to  the  effect  which  this  dis- 
turbance would  produce,  and  to  the  attention  that  would  thus 
be  called  throughout  the  country  to  the  attempt  which  had 
been  frustrated,  to  force  a  premature  vote  to  obtain  this  con- 
cession. 

It  was  finally  decided  that,  on  the  following  Saturday,  Gari- 
baldi should  leave  Genoa,  in  a  steamer  to  be  chartered  for 


142  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE, 

the  purpose,  with  two  hundred  men,  and,  choosing  his  own 
time  for  landing,  should  enter  the  town,  and  break  the  bal- 
lot-boxes before  the  authorities  had  time  to  take  the  neces- 
sary precautions.  I  forget  now  the  details  of  the  plan  ;  in- 
deed, I  am  not  sure  that  they  were  discussed,  as  the  affair 
was  naturally  one  which  was  to  be  kept  secret,  and  the  exe- 
cution of  which  was  entirely  to  be  intrusted  to  Garibaldi. 
The  general  now  asked  me  whether  1  wished  to  join  in  the 
expedition,  and  on  my  expressing  my  readiness  to  do  so,  in- 
vited me  to  accompany  him  to  Genoa  a  day  or  two  after- 
wards. We  made  the  journey  in  a  carriage  which  had  been 
reserved  for  him,  and  in  which  there  was  nobody  but  the 
genera],  his  aide-de-camp,  and  myself.  We  had  scarcely 
any  conversation  on  the  way,  for  he  had  brought  a  packet, 
containing  apparently  his  morning's  mail,  and  he  was  en- 
gaged in  reading  letters  nearly  the  whole  way.  These  for 
the  most  part  he  tore  up  into  small  fragments  as  soon  as  he 
had  made  himself  acquainted  with  their  contents;  and  by 
the  time  we  reached  Genoa  the  floor  of  the  carriage  was 
thickly  strewn  with  the  litter,  and  looked  like  a  gigantic 
waste-paper  basket.  My  curiosity  was  much  exercised  to 
imagine  what  this  enormous  correspondence  could  be  ;  but  I 
have  since  had  reason  to  believe  that  they  were  responses  to 
a  call  for  volunteers,  but  not  for  the  Nice  expedition.  "  And 
now,"  he  said  at  last,  after  tearing  up  the  last  letter,  as  though 
his  mind  had  been  occupied  with  some  other  matter,  and 
turning  to  me,  "  Let  us  consider  what  part  you  are  to  play 
in  this  Nice  affair."  I  assured  him  I  was  ready  for  any  part 
in  which  I  could  be  useful.  It  was  then  arranged  that  im- 
mediately on  my  arrival  at  Genoa  I  should  go  to  the  diligence 
office,  and  try  and  engage  at  once  an  extra  diligence  to  start 
the  same  evening  for  Nice.  When  I  had  secured  the  dili- 
gence, and  arranged  the  hour  for  the  start,  I  was  to  report 
to  Garibaldi,  who  gave  me  the  address  at  which  he  was  to  be 
found  ;  he  would  then  instruct  eight  or  ten  of  his  friends  to 
wait  for  me  at  the  outskirts  of  the  town.     These  I  was  to 


AN    EPISODE  WITH  GARIBALDI.  I43 

pick  up,  and  they  were  to  prepare  matters  for  his  arrival  on 
the  following  Sunday  morning  with  two  hundred  men.  He 
also  wrote  a  note  in  pencil  to  a  confidential  friend  in  Nice, 
introducing  me  to  him,  informing  him  that  I  was  in  his  con- 
fidence, that  I  would  explain  to  him  so  much  of  the  plan  as 
I  knew,  and  be  ready  to  offer  any  assistance  in  my  power. 
By  the  time  all  these  arrangements  were  discussed  and  the 
note  written  we  reached  Genoa.  In  order  to  lose  no  time, 
as  it  was  now  getting  late  in  the  afternoon,  after  hurriedly 
taking  some  refreshment,  I  went  off  to  the  diligence  office. 
Here  I  did  not  find  my  mission  so  easy  of  accomplishment 
as  I  expected.  I  asked  whether  it  were  possible  to  get  an 
extra  diligence  to  Nice. 

"  Yes,"  said  the  clerk  ;  "  by  paying  for  it." 

"All  right,"  I  replied;  "tell  me  what  it  costs." 

"How  many  passengers?"  he  asked. 

Now  Garibaldi  had  impressed  upon  me  great  reserve  in 
this  respect. 

"  I  do  not  wish,"  he  had  said,  "  the  people  at  the  office 
to  know  who  are  going,  or  how  many ;  you  must  engage 
the  diligence,  if  possible,  for  yourself,  and  answer  no  ques- 
tions." 

Now  that  it  came  to  the  point  I  found  this  an  extremely 
difficult  matter  to  do.  The  only  plan  was  to  fall  back  upon 
the  proverbial  eccentricity  of  the  Milord  Anglais, 

"  Oh,  I  have  a  friend  or  two  ;  we  meant  to  go  by  the  dili- 
gence this  morning,  but  were  detained  at  Turin.  It  is  my 
habit  whenever  I  am  too  late  for  a  diligence  to  take  another. 
I  like  having  a  whole  diligence  to  myself,  then  I  can  change 
about  from  one  seat  to  another,  and  am  sure  not  to  be 
crowded." 

"And  you  are  ready  to  pay  for  sixteen  places  and  six 
horses  for  that  pleasure  ?"  said  the  clerk. 

"  If  I  like  to  spend  my  money  that  way,  what  does  it  mat- 
ter to  anybody  else  ?" 

"  What  baggage  have  you  ?" 


144  EPISODES   IN    A    LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE, 

"  A  portmanteau  each." 

"  It  is  very  irregular,"  persisted  the  clerk ;  "  such  a  thing 
has  never  happened  to  me  before  as  for  a  man  to  want  to 
engage  a  whole  extra  diligence  to  carry  himself  and  his  friend 
and  a  couple  of  portmanteaus,  and  I  cannot  take  the  respon- 
sibility of  giving  you  one  without  consulting  my  superiors, 
which  it  is  difficult  for  me  to  do  at  this  late  hour.  If  you 
like,  I  will  give  you  a  large  carriage  which  holds  six — that 
ought  to  satisfy  you." 

Finally  it  was  arranged  that  if  I  came  back  in  an  hour, 
the  clerk  would  in  the  interval  find  out  whether  I  could  have 
the  diligence,  and  I  would  then  give  him  my  answer  in  re- 
gard to  the  carriage,  in  the  event  of  the  diligence  being  re- 
fused. 

I  now  repaired  to  the  hotel  which  Garibaldi  had  indicated 
as  his  address,  and  which  was  a  rough,  old-fashioned,  second- 
rate-looking  place  upon  the  quay.  There  was  no  doubt  about 
the  general  being  there,  for  there  was  a  great  hurrying  in  and 
out,  and  a  buzzing  of  young  men  about  the  door,  as  though 
something  of  importance  was  going  on  inside.  Before  being 
admitted  to  the  general,  I  was  made  to  wait  until  my  name 
was  taken  in  to  him  :  it  was  evident  that  precautions  were 
being  taken  in  regard  to  admissions  into  his  presence.  After 
a  few  moments  I  was  shown  into  a  large  room,  in  which 
twenty  or  thirty  men  were  at  supper,  and  at  the  head  of  the 
table  sat  Garibaldi.  He  immediately  made  room  for  me 
next  him  ;  and  before  I  had  time  to  tell  him  the  result  of  my 
mission  at  the  diligence  office,  accosted  me  with — 

^^  Amico  jfiio,  I  am  very  sorry,  but  we  must  abandon  all 
idea  of  carrying  out  our  Nice  programme.  Behold  these 
gentlemen  from  Sicily.  All  from  Sicily !  All  come  here  to 
meet  me,  to  say  that  the  moment  is  ripe,  that  delay  would  be 
fatal  to  their  hopes ;  that  if  we  are  to  relieve  their  country 
from  the  oppression  of  Bomba,  we  must  act  at  once.  I  had 
hoped  to  be  able  to  carry  out  this  little  Nice  affair  first,  for 
it  is  only  a  matter  of  a  few  days  ;  but,  much  as  I  regret  it,  the 


AN    EPISODE    WITH    GARIDALDI.  1 45 

general  opinion  is  that  we  shall  lose  all  if  we  try  for  too 
much  ;  and,  fond  as  I  am  of  my  native  province,  I  cannot 
•sacrifice  these  greater  hopes  of  Italy  to  it." 

I  will  not  vouch  for  these  being  the  very  words  he  used, 
but  this  was  their  exact  sense. 

I  suppose  my  face  showed  my  disappointment,  for,  as  I 
remained  silent,  he  continued, 

"  But  if  you  desire  to  fight  in  a  good  cause,  join  us.  I 
know  you  are  not  a  soldier,  but  I  will  keep  you  with  me,  and 
find  work  for  you." 

I  have  never  ceased  regretting  since  that  I  did  not  accept  this 
offer.  I  should  have  been  the  only  one  of  the  eight  hundred 
prodi  that  left  Genoa  a  fortnight  later  who  was  not  an  Italian. 
I  afterwards  saw  these  eight  hundred  decorated  at  Naples. 
It  is  true  many  followers  joined  Garibaldi  almost  immediate- 
ly on  his  landing;  but  those  who  embarked  with  him  from 
Genoa  were  to  a  man  Italians.  While  I  was  hesitating,  the 
general  explained  to  the  Sicilians  present  the  circumstances 
under  which  I  was  among  them,  and  the  offers  he  had  made 
me,  in  which  they  all  cordially  joined.  I  had,  however,  just 
left  England,  expecting  to  be  absent  about  a  month,  and 
had  made  engagements  there  which  necessitated  my  return. 
Moreover,  I  had  become  so  interested  in  this  Nice  question, 
and  knew  so  little  of  what  the  chances  of  success  were  in 
Sicily,  that  I  scarcely  felt  disposed  to  embark  in  an  enter- 
prise, which,  at  the  first  glance,  seemed  rash  and  foolhardy 
in  the  highest  degree.  I  wavered  in  my  resolution,  however, 
a  good  deal  during  supper,  under  the  influence  of  the  enthu- 
siasm by  which  I  was  surrounded  ;  and  finall}',  bidding  Gari- 
baldi a  cordial  farewell,  and  wishing  him  and  his  companions 
all  success,  beat  a  retreat,  fearing  that  I  should  be  unable 
otherwise  to  resist  the  temptation,  which  was  every  moment 
getting  stronger,  of  joining  them. 

I  went  next  morning  to  the  office  in  time  to  catch  the  dili- 
gence, and  my  friend  the  clerk  received  me  with  a  compas- 
sionate smile. 
7 


146  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE    OF   ADVENTURE. 

"  So  you  have  given  up  the  idea  of  having  a  diligence  to 
yourself?"  he  remarked. 

I  fear  he  thought  me  not  merely  a  very  eccentric  but  a  very 
weak-minded  Englishman.  I  humbly  crawled  up  into  the 
banquette  with  a  nod  of  assent,  disappointed  and  dejected, 
and  more  and  more  a  prey  to  vain  regrets  that  I  had  not 
cast  in  my  lot  with  the  Sicilians. 

At  Nice  I  delivered  the  letter  of  introduction  I  had  re- 
ceived from  Garibaldi,  now  become  useless,  and  told  the 
gentleman  to  whom  it  was  addressed  the  whole  story.  What 
I  heard  from  him,  combined  with  what  fell  under  my  own 
observation,  made  me  feel  still  more  regret  at  the  abandon- 
ment of  the  enterprise ;  for  it  was  the  general  opinion  that 
the  Nice  episode  would  not  have  delayed  the  Sicilian  expedi- 
tion. Half  an  hour  would  have  sufficed  to  break  the  ballot- 
boxes  and  scatter  the  votes ;  and  Garibaldi  could  have  been 
back  in  Genoa,  and  left  the  further  details  to  those  interested 
in  carrying  them  out.  I  asked  why  it  was  necessary  for  Gari- 
baldi to  be  present  at  all  at  so  simple  an  operation,  and 
whether  there  was  not  any  one  in  the  town  who  could  collect 
a  few  determined  men  and  carry  it  out.  But  the  idea  was 
scouted  as  impossible.  There  was  only  one  man  in  all  Italy 
the  magic  of  whose  name  and  the  prestige  of  whose  presence 
was  sufficient  for  these  things.  In  Nice  itself  there  was  no  one 
either  with  the  faculty  to  organize,  the  courage  to  execute, 
or  the  authority  to  control  a  movement  of  this  sort ;  and  I 
therefore  consoled  myself  by  taking  the  only  revenge  I  could 
upon  a  population  so  weak  and  so  easily  misled  by  their  au- 
thorities, by  voting  myself  for  their  annexation  to  France. 
Of  course  I  had  no  right  whatever  to  vote  ;  but  that  made  no 
difference,  provided  you  voted  the  right  way.  As  for  vot- 
ing "  No,"  that  was  almost  impossible.  The  "No"  tickets 
were  very  difficult  to  procure,  while  the  "  Yeses "  were 
thrust  into  your  hands  from  every  direction.  If  ever  ballot- 
boxes  deserved  to  be  smashed,  and  their  contents  scattered 
to  the  winds,  those  did  which  contained  the  popular  vote 


AN    EXPERIENCE    IN    MONTENEGRO.  147 

under  which  Nice  now  forms  part  of  the  French  republic ; 
and  the  operation  of  breaking  them  was  one  which  a  dozen 
resolute  men,  who  were  prepared  to  stand  the  consequences, 
might  have  performed  with  the  greatest  ease. 

At  the  same  time  I  am  bound  to  say  that,  looked  at  by  the 
light  of  subsequent  events,  and  the  prosperity  which  has  at- 
tended Nice  since  its  incorporation  with  France,  the  inhabi- 
tants have  had  no  reason  to  regret  the  escamotage  of  which  at 
the  time  they  seemed  the  victims. 

Two  or  three  months  after  my  return  to  England,  in  my 
quality  of  a  rolling  stone,  I  began  rolling  again.  I  rolled 
very  pleasantly  through  Hungary,  gathering  moss  of  various 
sorts  at  divers  hospitable  Magyar  country-houses.  I  rolled 
on  to  Belgrade,  reaching  it  on  the  day  before  Prince  Milosch's 
death,  an  event  which  it  was  expected  would  produce  a  revo- 
lution— which,  however,  proved  a  mere  flash  in  the  pan — and 
witnessed  the  very  singular  funeral  of  that  remarkably  able 
and  wicked  old  man.  Here  I  made  the  acquaintance  of  his 
son  and  successor  Prince  Michael,  destined  to  meet  a  violent 
death  by  assassination,  and  while  staying  with  my  old  friend 
Mr.  Longworth,  with  whom  I  had  been  associated  five  years 
before  in  Circassia,  and  who  was  now  consul-general  in  Ser- 
via,  was  joined  by  the  late  Lord  Edward  St.  Maur ;  with  him 
I  rolled  on  through  Bosnia  and  the  Herzegovina,  wilder  and 
more  turbulent  in  those  days  than  they  are  now,  abounding 
in  brigand  bands,  enchanting  scenery,  and  fleas,  and  in  a 
chronic  state  of  guerilla  warfare  with  the  Turkish  govern- 
ment, which  invested  travelling  through  the  country  with  the 
pleasing  charm  of  perpetual  risk  to  life  and  limb.  We  sailed 
down  the  Narenta  in  an  open  boat,  cruising  delightfully 
through  the  archipelago  of  islands  which  fringed  the  Dal- 
matian coast  to  Ragusa.  We  rolled  on  by  way  of  Cattaro 
into  Montenegro,  where  I  made  the  acquaintance  of  the 
prince,  then  just  married;  and  here  I  gathered  a  piece  of 
moss  which  was  so  characteristic  of  the  scale  upon  which  the 


140  EPISODES    IN    A    LIFE    OF    ADVENTURE. 

administration  of  the  principality  was  conducted  that  it  is 
worth  narrating.  The  little  town  of  Cettinje,  which  is  its 
cajDital,  did  not  then  contain  any  hotel,  properly  so  called, 
but  the  rare  stranger  who  visited  it  was  accommodated  in  a 
sort  of  lodging-house,  in  which  there  were  one  or  two  spare 
bedrooms  ;  or,  if  they  were  not  actually  spare,  their  occupants 
turned  out,  I  suppose  for  a  consideration,  on  the  arrival  of  a 
guest.  The  chamber  assigned  to  me  had  apparently  been 
thus  vacated.  Its  former  occupant  had  evidently  been  a 
man  of  modest  requirements,  for  the  entire  furniture  con- 
sisted of  a  bed,  a  huge  chest,  and  a  chair.  I  much  won- 
dered at  the  absence  of  a  table  and  the  presence  of  the 
chest,  but  the  latter  was  better  than  nothing ;  and  when  a 
boiled  chicken  was  brought  to  me  as  my  evening  repast,  I 
spread  one  of  my  own  towels  upon  it,  in  the  absence  of  a 
table-cloth,  and,  squatting  uncomfortably  upon  the  solitary 
chair,  proceeded  to  make  the  best  of  existing  conditions.  I 
was  in  the  act  of  dissecting  an  extremely  tough  wing,  when 
the  door  suddenly  opened,  and  a  stalwart  Montenegrin, 
looking  magnificent  in  his  national  costume,  stalked  in.  He 
addressed  me  with  great  politeness  in  his  native  tongue — at 
least  I  gathered  from  his  manner  that  he  was  polite,  for  I 
could  not  understand  a  word  of  what  he  said.  As  he  was 
evidently  a  man  of  some  position,  in  other  words,  as  he 
seemed  to  be  a  gentleman  of  Montenegro,  I  rose  and  bowed 
with  much  ceremony,  addressing  him  fluently  in  the  English 
language ;  upon  which  he  drew  an  immense  key  from  his 
pocket,  and  pointed  to  the  lock  of  the  chest,  thus  giving  me 
to  understand  that  he  wished  to  open  it.  In  order  for  him  to 
accomplish  this,  it  was  necessary  for  me  to  remove  my  din- 
ner, an  operation  which  was  speedily  performed.  As  he 
seemed  a  frank  and  engaging  sort  of  person  without  any 
secrets,  and  as  I  was  possessed  with  the  natural  curiosity  of 
a  stone  gathering  moss,  I  looked  over  him  while  he  opened 
the  chest,  to  see  what  was  in  it.  To  my  astonishment  it  was 
full  to  the  brim  of  bags  of  money.     Not  only  this,  but  my 


AN   EXPERIENCE   IN    MONTENEGRO.  I49 

strange  visitor  opened  one  of  them,  and  poured  out  a  hand- 
ful of  gold.  They  were  evidently  all  full  of  gold.  When 
he  had  counted  out  what  he  wanted — which,  as  well  as  my 
memory  serves  me,  was  over  a  hundred  pounds  —  he  tied  up 
the  bag  again,  replaced  it,  locked  up  the  chest,  helped  me 
with  many  Sclavonic  expressions,  which  I  have  no  doubt 
w-ere  apologies,  to  lay  my  cloth  and  spread  my  banquet 
again;  and  with  a  final  polite  salutation  vanished,  leaving 
me  alone,  and  in  perfect  confidence,  with  the  untold  treasure 
which  he  had  thus  revealed  to  me.  There  was  something  al- 
most uncanny  in  dining  and  sleeping  alone  with  so  much 
money.  At  night  the  chest  seemed  to  assume  gigantic  pro- 
portions, and  I  felt  as  if  I  had  been  put  into  a  haunted  room. 
The  absolute  confidence  placed  in  me,  an  utter  stranger,  for 
I  had  not  been  in  the  place  a  couple  of  hours,  and  had  not 
yet  presented  my  letter  of  introduction  to  the  prince,  ap- 
palled me ;  and  I  went  to  sleep  vainly  trying  to  unravel  a 
mystery  so  unlike  any  I  had  expected  to  find  in  the  barren 
wilds  of  Montenegro.  It  was  not  solved  until  next  day,  when, 
dining  with  the  prince,  I  met  my  visitor  of  the  previous  even- 
ing. I  then  acquired  the  information,  through  a  Russian 
gentleman  present  who  spoke  French,  that  the  chest  upon 
which  I  had  dined  contained  the  entire  finances  of  the  prin- 
cipality, and  that  the  Montenegrin  who  had  unlocked  it, 
and  vacated  his  chamber  in  my  behalf,  was  its  chancellor  of 
the  exchequer ! 

From  Montenegro  we  rolled  down  to  Corfu,  where  Mr. 
Herbert,  then  attached  to  the  legation  at  Athens,  joined  us, 
and  we  spent  some  very  pleasant  days  together.  I  little 
thought  when  I  parted  from  my  friends,  to  embark  on  board 
the  steamer  for  Ancona,  how  tragically  their  young  lives  were 
destined  to  be  terminated — Lord  Edward  to  fall  a  victim  to 
a  bear  while  shooting  in  India,  and  Herbert  to  be  held  for 
ransom  by  brigands,  and  finally  murdered  by  them  near  the 
plains  of  Marathon.  At  Ancona  I  found  the  hospitals  full 
of  wounded  from  the  battle  of  Castel  Fidardo,  which  had 


150  EPISODES   IN   A    LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

just  been  fought ;  then  I  rolled  through  Italy  in  a  diligence 
for  three  days  and  two  nights,  in  company  with  sundry  papal 
sbirri  as  fellow-passengers,  who  were  escaping  to  the  shelter 
of  Rome  from  the  provinces  which  the  pope  was  rapidly  los- 
ing, in  terror  of  their  lives  lest  their  identity  should  be  recog- 
nized by  the  inhabitants  of  the  villages  at  which  we  stopped 
to  change  horses  ;  and  so  into  the  sacred  city,  where  all  was 
suppressed  excitement  at  the  changes  which  were  transpir- 
ing in  the  Italian  Peninsula. 

But  I  did  not  linger  there,  for  I  was  anxious  to  see  Gari- 
baldi once  more,  now  administering  at  Naples  the  kingdom 
which  he  had  conquered  since  w-e  had  parted  a  few  months 
before.  He  received  me  with  affectionate  cordiality,  and 
listened  with  interest  to  my  account  of  the  taking  of  the  vote 
at  Nice,  but  insisted  that  he  could  not  regret  the  decision  he 
had  arrived  at,  as  he  felt  convinced  that  his  Sicilian  expedi- 
tion would  have  been  marred  had  he  involved  himself  in 
political  difficulties  with  his  own  government  at  such  a  crisis, 
in  which  he  was  very  possibly  right.  Then  I  rolled  out  to 
see  a  little  fighting  near  Capua,  but  all  the  serious  work  had 
been  accomplished,  and  I  lodged  a  few  days  with  my  friend 
the  late  General  Eber,  who  had  made  his  headquarters  in  the 
royal  palace  at  Caserta  ;  lodged  sumptuously,  for  every  room 
and  every  bed  in  the  palace  was  occupied  except  the  royal 
bedroom  and  the  royal  bed,  which  the  general  himself  had 
been  too  modest  to  appropriate,  and  which,  as  it  was  the  only 
one  vacant,  he  assigned  to  me  —  a  bed  so  gorgeous,  with  its 
gold  and  lace  satin,  that  I  doubted  whether  the  king  himself 
did  not  keep  it  for  show.  However,  it  turned  out  a  very 
good  one  to  sleep  in. 

At  last  the  day  came  when  Victor  Emmanuel  arrived  to  re- 
ceive a  kingdom  from  the  hands  of  the  Nice  sailor ;  and  as  I 
saw  them  both  appear  on  the  balcony  of  the  palace  from  the 
square  below,  I  was  reminded  of  a  certain  day  twelve  years 
before,  when  I  formed  one  of  a  mob  in  that  same  square,  at 
the  moment  that,  by  Bomba's  order,  it  was  fired  upon  by  the 


AN    EXPERIENCE    IN    MONTENEGRO.  151 

troops,  and  I  was  able  to  identify  the  very  port  cochere  into 
which  I  had  fled  for  refuge  on  that  occasion.  Now  I  was 
listening  to  the  voice  of  the  deliverer,  standing  with  bared 
head,  and  in  red  shirt,  presenting  a  kingdom  to  his  sovereign, 
and  to  the  ringing  cheers  of  the  liberated  multitude,  as,  with 
enthusiastic  demonstrations  of  joy,  they  welcomed  their  new 
ruler.  Thus  did  United  Italy  owe  its  existence  to  a  combina- 
tion of  the  most  opposite  qualities  in  the  persons  of  its  two 
greatest  patriots,  who  would  not  work  together ;  for  it  is  cer- 
tain that  Cavour  could  never  have  created  it  without  Gari- 
baldi, or  Garibaldi  have  achieved  success  without  Cavour. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  ATTACK    ON  THE    BRITISH  LEGATION    IN  JAPAN    IN    1861. 

In  October,  i860,  Mr.  de  Norman,  First  Secretary  of  Le- 
gation in  Japan,  who  was  temporarily  attached  to  Lord  El- 
gin's second  special  embassy  to  China,  was  barbarously  tor- 
tured and  murdered  at  Pekin  ;  and  early  in  the  following 
year  I  was  sent  out  to  succeed  him.  Sir  Rutherford  Alcock, 
who  had  been  appointed  minister  to  Japan  under  the  treaty 
which  we  made  with  that  country  in  1858,  when  I  was  acting 
secretary  to  the  special  mission,  had  applied  for  two  years' 
leave  ;  and  thus  the  prospect  was  opened  to  me  of  acting  as 
charge  d'affaires  at  Yedo  for  that  period.  It  was  one  which 
my  former  brief  experience  in  that  interesting  and  compara- 
tively unknown  country  rendered  extremely  tempting  ;  and 
early  in  June  I  reached  Shanghai,  on  my  way  to  Yokohama. 
I  was  extremely  sorry  to  find  that  I  had  just  missed  Sir 
Rutherford,  who  had  left  Shanghai  only  a  fortnight  before 
for  Nagasaki,  from  which  town  he  intended  to  travel  overland 
to  Yedo — a  most  interesting  journey  of  at  least  a  month, 
through  an  entirely  unknown  country;  an  experience  which, 
in  view  of  my  future  residence  in  it,  would  have  been  valua- 
ble in  many  ways.  There  was  nothing  left  for  it  but  to  go, 
on  the  first  opportunity,  by  sea  ;  and  towards  the  end  of  the 
month  I  reached  Yokohama,  from  which  port  I  lost  no  time 
in  pushing  on  to  Yedo.  Here  I  found  the  legation  estab- 
lished in  a  temple  at  the  entrance  to  the  cit}',  in  one  of  its 
principal  suburbs,  called  Sinagawa.  It  was  separated  from 
the  sea  by  a  high-road,  and  on  entering  the  large  gateway,  an 
avenue,  about  three  hundred  yards  long,  led  to  a  second  gate- 


ATTACK    ON    BRITISH    LEGATION   IN    JAPAN.  153 

way,  behind  which  stood  the  temple  buildings.  In  the  out- 
side court  were  the  servants'  offices  and  stables,  in  which 
stood  always,  saddled  and  bridled,  like  those  of  the  knights 
of  Branksome  Hall,  the  horses  of  our  mounted  Japanese 
body-guard,  without  whose  escort  no  member  of  the  legation 
could  at  that  time  take  a  ride  abroad.  Besides  these,  there 
was  a  foot-guard,  partly  composed  of  soldiers  of  the  tycoon, 
or  temporal  emperor,  as  he  was  then  called,  and  partly  by 
retainers  of  the  daimios,  or  feudatory  chiefs  of  the  country — 
the  whole  amounting  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  men.  These 
guards  were  placed  here  by  the  government  for  our  protec- 
tion, although  some  of  us  at  the  time  thought  that  the  pre- 
caution was  altogether  exaggerated  and  unnecessary,  and 
that  their  constant  presence  was  intended  rather  as  a  meas- 
ure of  surveillance  over  our  movements.  To  what  extent 
this  latter  motive  operated  it  is  impossible  to  conjecture,  but 
the  sequel  showed  that  the  apprehensions  of  the  government 
for  our  safety  were  by  no  means  unfounded.  I  had  been  ac- 
companied from  England  by  Mr.  Reginald  Russell,  who  had 
been  appointed  attache,  and  it  was  with  no  little  curiosity 
that  we  rode  up  the  avenue  to  what  was  to  be  our  future 
home. 

Two  or  three  members  of  the  legation  v\'ere  waiting  to  re- 
ceive us,  and  showed  us  over  the  quaint  construction  which 
had  been  appropriated  by  the  Japanese  government  to  the 
use  of  the  first  foreign  minister  who  had  ever  resided  in  their 
capital.  Part  of  the  building  was  still  used  for  ecclesiastical 
purposes,  and  haunted  by  priests  ;  but  our  quarters  were 
roomy  and  comfortable,  the  interior  economy  being  suscepti- 
ble of  modification  in  the  number,  size,  and  arrangement  of 
the  rooms  by  the  simple  expedient  of  moving  the  partition- 
walls,  which  consisted  of  paper-screens  running  in  grooves. 
The  ease  with  which  these  could  be  burst  through,  as  it  after- 
wards proved,  afforded  equal  facilities  of  escape  and  attack. 
One  felt  rather  as  if  one  were  living  in  a  bandbox;  and  there 
was  an  air  of  flimsiness  about  the  whole  construction  by  no 
7* 


154  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE    OF   ADVENTURE. 

means  calculated  to  inspire  a  sense  of  security  in  a  capital 
of  over  two  millions  of  people,  a  large  proportion  of  whom, 
we  were  given  to  understand,  were  thirsting  for  our  lives. 
Fortunately  for  our  peace  of  mind,  we  did  not  realize  this  at 
the  time,  and  were  taken  up  rather  by  the  quaintness  and  nov- 
elty of  our  new  abode,  and  the  picturesqueness  of  its  sur- 
roundings. We  congratulated  ourselves  upon  the  charming 
garden  and  grounds,  comprising  probably  two  or  three  acres, 
abundantly  furnished  with  magnificent  wide-spreading  trees, 
and  innumerable  shrubs  and  plants  which  were  new  to  us ; 
while  small  ponds  and  tiny  islands  contributed  a  feature 
which  is  generally  to  be  found  in  the  landscape-gardening 
in  which  the  Japanese  are  so  proficient.  Sir  Rutherford  Al- 
cock  was  not  expected  to  arrive  for  a  week,  and  I  occupied 
the  time  in  establishing  myself  in  my  new  quarters,  and  in 
exploring  the  neighborhood  on  horseback. 

On  these  occasions  we  were  always  accompanied  by  an 
escort  of  twenty  or  thirty  horsemen,  or  yacotiins,  as  they  are 
called,  mounted  on  wiry  ponies,  shod  with  straw  shoes,  and 
with  a  marked  tendency  to  being  vicious  and  unmanageable. 
These  exploratory  rides  were  a  great  source  of  delight  and 
interest  to  me,  for  although  I  had  been  in  the  country  be- 
fore, my  visit  had  only  lasted  a  fortnight ;  and  my  time  had 
been  exclusively  devoted  to  official  work,  and  the  examina- 
tion of  the  city  of  Yedo  itself,  so  that  I  had  seen  nothing 
whatever  of  the  surrounding  country.  Now  we  scampered 
across  it,  to  the  great  consternation  of  our  escort,  who  found 
great  difficulty  in  keeping  up  with  us — so  much  so  that, 
upon  more  than  one  occasion,  only  two  or  three  of  the  orig- 
inal number  succeeded  in  reaching  home  with  us.  I  had  de- 
termined, moreover,  upon  making  an  entomological  collec- 
tion for  the  British  Museum,  and  set  the  juvenile  part  of  the 
population  of  the  villages  through  which  I  passed  to  collect- 
ing insects,  in  the  hope  that  on  subsequent  visits  I  might 
find  something  worth  having.  I  was  successful  in  almost 
my  first  ride  in  finding  a  common-looking  but  very  rare 


ATTACK   ON   BRITISH    LEGATION    IN   JAPAN.  155 

beetle  ;  and  in  this  pursuit  my  English  servant — who  had  spent 
his  youth  in  the  house  of  a  naturalist  and  ornithologist,  and 
was  skilled  in  the  use  of  the  blow-pipe,  and  in  the  cleaning 
and  stuffing  of  birds — took  an  eager  interest. 

After  I  had  been  at  Yedo  about  a  week,  we  received  news 
of  the  approach  of  Sir  Rutherford  Alcock  and  his  party,  and 
rode  out  ten  miles  to  meet  them.  We  were  delighted  to  see 
them  arrive  safe  and  sound  after  a  land-journey  of  thirty- 
two  days,  as  we  had  not  been  without  anxiety  on  their  be- 
half— for  Japan  at  that  period  was  a  region  in  which  sinister 
rumors  were  rife,  and  we  never  knew  how  much  or  how  lit- 
tle to  believe  of  them  ;  but  now  the  great  experiment  of  trav- 
ersing the  country  for  the  first  time  by  Europeans  had  been 
safely  and  successfully  accomplished,  and  perhaps  contrib- 
uted to  lull  us  into  a  security  the  fallacy  of  which  was  des- 
tined so  shortly  to  be  proved  to  us. 

On  the  night  of  the  5th  of  July  a  comet  was  visible,  a  cir- 
cumstance to  which  some  of  us  possibly  owed  our  lives,  for 
we  sat  up  till  an  unusually  late  hour  looking  at  it.  As  one 
of  the  party  was  gifted  with  a  good  voice  and  an  extensive 
repertory  of  songs,  and  the  evening  was  warm  and  still,  we 
protracted  our  vigil  in  the  open  air  until  past  midnight.  At 
our  midday  halt  on  my  ride  from  Yokohama  to  Yedo,  I  had 
acquired  the  affections  of  a  stray  dog,  by  feeding  him  with 
our  luncheon-scraps  ;  and  this  animal  had  permanently  at- 
tached himself  to  me,  and  was  lying  across  the  threshold  of 
the  door  of  my  room  when  I  went  to  bed.  I  had  scarcely 
blown  out  my  candle  and  settled  myself  to  a  grateful  repose, 
when  this  dog  broke  into  a  sudden  and  furious  barking,  and 
at  the  same  moment  I  heard  the  sounds  of  a  watchman's  rat- 
tle. We  had  two  of  these  functionaries,  whose  business  it 
was  to  perambulate  the  garden  alternately  throughout  the 
night,  and  to  show  that  they  were  on  the  alert  by  springing, 
from  time  to  time,  a  rattle  made  of  bamboo  which  they  car- 
ried. Roused  by  these  noises,  I  listened  attentively,  and  dis- 
tinctly heard  the  sounds  of  what  seemed  a  scuftle  at  the 


156  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE   OF    ADVENTURE. 

front  door.  My  room  was  on  the  other  side  of  the  house, 
and  opened  on  to  the  garden,  from  which  quarter  it  was  en- 
tirely unprotected.  It  was  connected  with  the  front  of  the 
house  by  a  narrow  passage,  the  walls  of  which,  if  I  remember 
right,  were  of  lath-and-plaster,  or  at  all  events  of  some  firmer 
material  than  the  usual  paper  screens.  Thinking  that  the 
disturbance  was  probably  caused  by  some  quarrel  among  the 
servants,  I  jumped  out  of  bed,  intending  to  arm  myself  with 
my  revolver,  which  was  lying  in  its  case  on  the  table.  Un- 
fortunately my  servant  had  that  day  been  cleaning  it,  and 
after  replacing  it  and  locking  the  ca^e,  had  put  the  key 
where  I  could  not  lay  my  hand  upon  it.  A  box  which  con- 
tained a  sword  and  a  coat  of  mail,  which  had  been  laughing- 
ly presented  to  me  before  leaving  England  by  an  anxious 
friend,  had  not  been  opened  ;  so,  although  well  supplied  with 
means  both  of  offence  and  defence,  I  was  forced  in  the  hurry 
of  the  moment  to  content  myself  with  a  hunting-crop,  the 
handle  of  which  was  so  heavily  weighted  that  I  considered 
it  a  sufficiently  formidable  weapon  with  which  to  meet  any- 
body belonging  to  our  own  household  that  I  was  likely  to 
encounter.  Meantime  the  dog  continued  to  bark  violently, 
and  to  exhibit  unmistakable  signs  of  alarm.  Stepping  past 
him,  I  proceeded  along  the  passage  leading  to  the  front 
of  the  house,  which  was  only  dimly  lighted  by  an  oil-lamp 
that  was  standing  in  the  dining-room  ;  the  first  room  on  my 
left  was  that  occupied  by  Russell,  whom  I  hurriedly  roused, 
and  then,  hearing  the  noise  increasing,  rushed  out  towards 
it.  I  had  scarcely  taken  two  steps,  when  I  dimly  perceived 
the  advancing  figure  of  a  Japanese,  with  uplifted  arms  and 
sword ;  and  now  commenced  a  struggle  of  which  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  render  an  account.  I  remember  feeling  most  unac- 
countably hampered  in  my  efforts  to  bring  the  heavy  butt- 
end  of  my  hunting-whip  to  bear  upon  him,  and  to  be  aware 
that  he  was  aiming  blow  after  blow  at  me,  and  no  less  unac- 
countably missing  me,  and  feeling  ready  to  cry  with  vexation 
at  being  without  my  revolver,  and  being  aware  that  it  was  a 


ATTACK   ON    BRITISH    LEGATION    IN   JAPAN.  157 

life-and-death  struggle,  which  could  only  end  one  way,  when 
suddenly  I  was  blinded  by  the  flash  of  a  shot,  and  my  left 
arm,  which  I  was  instinctively  holding  up  to  shield  my  head, 
dropped  disabled.  I  naturally  thought  I  had  been  shot,  but 
it  turned  out  that  this  shot  saved  my  life. 

Among  those  who  had  accompanied  Sir  Rutherford  Al- 
cock  from  Nagasaki  was  Mr.  Morrison,  then  consul  at  that 
port.  His  servant  seems  to  have  encountered  one  of  our  as- 
sailants, masked  and  in  chain-armor,  in  his  first  rush  into  the 
building,  about  v.-hich  he  fortunately  did  not  know  his  way, 
and  the  servant,  escaping  from  him,  succeeded  in  safely 
reaching  his  master's  room,  and  in  arousing  him.  Seizing 
his  revolver,  Morrison  sallied  forth,  and,  attracted  by  the 
noise  of  my  struggle,  approached  from  behind  me,  and,  plac- 
ing his  revolver  over  my  shoulder,  shot  my  antagonist  at  the 
very  moment  that  he  had  inflicted  a  severe  cut  with  his  long 
two-handed  sword  on  my  left  arm,  a  little  above  the  wrist. 
A  moment  after,  Morrison  received  a  cut  over  the  forehead 
and  across  the  eyebrow  from  another  Japanese,  at  whom  he 
emptied  the  second  barrel  of  his  pistol.  An  instant  lull 
succeeded  these  shots.  It  was  too  dark  to  see  what  their 
effect  had  been,  but  the  narrow  passage  was  no  longer  blocked 
by  the  forms  of  our  assailants.  My  impression  is  that  one 
was  on  the  ground.  We  were  both  bleeding  so  profusely, 
and  felt  so  disabled,  that  there  was  nothing  left  for  us  but  to 
retreat,  and  this  we  instinctively  did  to  the  room  which  con- 
tained the  light.  This  was  placed  in  a  part  of  the  dining- 
room  which  had  been  screened  oft'  so  as  to  make  an  office 
for  Sir  Rutherford  Alcock,  with  whose  bedroom  it  communi- 
cated. The  screen  reached  about  three  fourths  across  the 
dining-room.  In  this  ofiice  we  found  Sir  Rutherford,  who 
had  just  been  roused,  and  were  joined  in  the  next  minute  or 
two  by  three  other  members  of  the  legation,  Mr.  Russell  and 
my  servant  B.,  all  hurriedly  escaping  from  a  noise  and  con- 
fusion which  increased  in  intensity  every  moment.  B.,  on 
the  first  alarm,  had  begun  to  load  his  double-barrelled  gun, 


158  EPISODES    IN    A    LIFE   OF  ADVENTURE, 

and  had  finished  with  the  exception  of  putting  on  the  caps — 
this  was  before  the  days  of  breech-loaders — when  two  Japan- 
ese jumped  in  at  his  window.  Fortunately,  spread  out  be- 
fore it  on  a  table  were  two  open  insect-cases,  with  the  spoils 
of  the  week  impaled  on  pins.  On  these  the  assailants 
jumped  with  their  bare  feet,  and  upsetting  the  table,  came 
sprawling  into  the  room,  thus  giving  B.,  who  had  lost  the 
caps  in  the  start  he  received,  time  to  spring  through  the  pa- 
per wall  of  his  room,  like  a  harlequin,  and  reach  us  in  safety. 
At  this  juncture  the  position  of  affairs  was  not  reassuring. 
We  numbered  eight  behind  the  screen,  of  whom  two  were 
hors  de  combat.  Our  available  means  of  defence  consisted  of 
three  revolvers  and  a  double-barrelled  gun.  Of  the  Euro- 
pean inmates  of  the  legation  three  were  missing;  one  of 
these  was  Mr.  Wirgman,  the  artist  of  the  Jlhistratcd  London 
News,  who  had  accompanied  Sir  Rutherford  in  his  journey 
from  Nagasaki ;  and  of  the  two  others,  one  lived  in  a  cottage 
somewhat  detached  from  the  temple.  Meantime  Sir  Ruth- 
erford, who  fortunately  possessed  some  surgical  skill,  was  en- 
gaged in  binding  up  my  arm.  The  gash  was  to  the  bone, 
cutting  through  three  of  the  extensor  tendons,  so  that  to  this 
day  I  am  unable  to  hold  erect  three  fingers  of  my  left  hand. 
I  should  undoubtedly  have  bled  to  death  had  it  not  been  for 
the  efficient  measures  thus  kindly  and  promptly  adopted  to 
stop  the  hemorrhage.  As  it  was,  I  was  becoming  very  faint 
from  loss  of  blood,  as  I  now  discovered  that  I  had  also  re- 
ceived another  and  very  serious  wound  over  the  right  collar- 
bone, and  unpleasantly  near  the  jugular  vein,  of  which,  in  the 
excitement  of  the  struggle,  I  had  been  totally  unconscious. 
Also  a  very  slight  tip  from  the  sword  high  up  on  the  right 
arm,  the  mark  of  which,  however,  is  still  visible  ;  and  a  blow 
which  I  did  not  discover  till  next  day,  which  broke  several  of 
the  metacarpal  bones  of  the  left  hand.  I  never  could  imag- 
ine how  or  when  I  received  this  blow;  but  it  was  an  evi- 
dence that  we  must  have  been  at  one  moment  of  the  struggle 
at  very  close  quarters. 


ATTACK    ON    BRITISH    LEGATION    IN   JAPAN.  1 59 

Meantime  the  noise  of  cutting  and  slashing  resounded 
through  the  house  ;  and  while  it  drew  nearer  every  moment, 
we  were  at  a  loss  to  conceive  who  our  assailants  could  be, 
and  why  the  guard  had  not  come  to  our  rescue — unless,  in- 
deed, they  were  in  the  plot  to  murder  us.  At  last  we  heard 
all  the  glass  crash  on  the  sideboard  in  the  dining-room,  and 
we  knew  that  our  moment  had  come.  My  companions  had 
made  up  their  minds  to  sell  their  lives  dearly;  and  every 
man  who  was  fortunate  enough  to  possess  one,  was  standing 
with  his  finger  on  the  trigger  of  his  revolver,  while  this  time 
the  caps  were  safely  on  B.'s  double-barrelled  gun.  I  sug- 
gested to  one  of  the  party — I  forget  which  now — that  they 
would  have  a  chance  for  their  lives  by  escaping  into  the  gar- 
den and  hiding  among  the  bushes,  which  they  could  easily 
have  done  ;  but  the  answer  was  that  they  could  not  take  me 
with  them,  and  they  had  determined  not  to  desert  me,  but  to 
stand  or  fall  together — for  which  I  felt  at  the  time  intensely 
grateful,  and  do  still,  though  I  had  at  that  moment  given  up 
all  hope  of  escape.  I  was  overcome  by  a  feeling  of  faintness, 
which  made  me  regard  the  prospect  of  immediate  death  with 
complete  indifference,  until  B.,  while  he  was  giving  me  some 
water  to  drink,  murmured  in  my  ear,  "Do  you  think  they 
will  torture  us,  sir,  before  they  kill  us  ?"  This  horrible  sug- 
gestion brought  out  a  cold  perspiration  ;  and  I  trust  I  may 
never  again  experience  the  sensation  of  dread  with  which  it 
inspired  me,  and  which  I  was  too  weak  to  fight  against.  It 
did  not  last  long,  however,  for  almost  at  the  same  moment 
there  was  an  immense  increase  of  noise,  and  the  clashing  of 
swords,  intermingled  with  sharp  cries  and  ejaculations,  re- 
sounded from  the  other  side  of  the  screen,  and  our  curiosity 
and  hope  were  excited  in  the  highest  degree,  for  we  thought 
it  indicated  a  possible  rescue.  In  a  few  moments  it  subsided, 
and  all  was  still,  and  Sir  Rutherford,  followed  by  Mr.  Low- 
der,  went  cautiously  out  on  a  reconnoitring  expedition,  to 
find  the  dining-room  looking  like  a  shambles,  and  to  discover 
some  Japanese  retreating  down  the  passage,  at  whom  Mr. 


l6o  EPISODES    IN    A    LIFE    OF    ADVENTURE. 

Lowder  fired  a  shot  from  his  revolver.  Shortly  after  they 
returned,  Mr.  Macdonald,  one  of  the  gentlemen  whose  room 
was  situated  out  of  the  line  of  attack,  appeared  disguised  in 
a  Japanese  dress,  accompanied  by  some  of  the  guard,  excited 
and  blood-bespattered,  and  we  knew  that  we  were  saved  by 
them,  though  not  a  second  too  soon.  Had  our  assailants  not 
been  attacked  in  rear  by  the  guard  at  the  moment  they  were 
in  the  dining-room,  they  must  inevitably  in  a  few  seconds 
more  have  discovered  us  behind  the  screen,  and  this  account 
of  that  eventful  night's  proceedings  would  never  have  been 
written.  We  were  now  informed  that  some  of  our  assailants 
had  been  killed,  that  the  guard  were  searching  for  others 
in  the  grounds,  and  that  reinforcements  had  been  sent  for. 
These  appeared  soon  after ;  and  I  have  never  seen  a  more 
dramatic  and  picturesque  sight  than  these  men,  all  clad  in 
chain-armor,  with  their  steel  head-pieces,  long  two-handed 
swords,  and  Japanese  lanterns,  filing  through  the  house,  and 
out  into  the  starlight.  It  was  like  a  scene  from  the  "  Hugue- 
nots," and  as  I  watched  them  from  the  arm-chair  in  which  I 
was  still  lying,  swathed  and  bandaged,  was  one  of  the  most 
vivid  impressions  produced  upon  my  mind  on  that  night  of 
lively  sensations. 

About  this  time  Mr.  Wirgman,  the  artist  of  the  Illustrated 
London  News,  turned  up,  coated  with  a  thick  breastplate  of 
mud.  He  had  taken  refuge  under  the  house,  which  was 
raised  about  eighteen  inches  from  the  ground,  and,  crawling 
in  on  his  stomach,  had  remained  in  profound  but  somewhat 
dirty  security  under  the  flooring.  With  the  true  spirit  of  his 
calling  he  immediately  set  about  portraying  the  most  strik- 
ing features  of  the  episode,  for  the  benefit  of  the  British  pub- 
lic. Mr.  Gower,  another  gentleman  who  lived  in  a  little 
cottage  apart,  also  appeared  safe  and  sound,  having  been 
throughout  removed  from  the  scene  of  the  strife. 

It  was  about  three  o'clock  in  the  morning  that  I  deter- 
mined to  struggle  back  to  bed  ;  and  even  then  the  soldiers 
were  hunting  about  the  garden  for  concealed  members  of 


ATTACK    ON    DRITISH  LEGATION    IN    JAPAN.  l6l 

the  gang  that  had  attacked  us,  proddhig  the  bushes  with 
their  swords,  and  searching  into  hidden  recesses.  As,  sup- 
ported by  friendly  arms,  I  tottered  round  the  screen  into  the 
dining-room,  a  ghastly  sight  met  my  gaze.  Under  the  side- 
board, completely  severed  from  the  body,  was  a  man's  head. 
The  body  was  lying  in  the  middle  of  the  room.  I  had  in  the 
first  instance  rushed  out  of  my  bedroom  barefooted,  and  in 
my  night-dress.  I  now  found  myself  slipping  about  in  blood 
— for  butchers'  work  had  been  done  here — and  feeling  some- 
thing like  an  oyster  under  my  bare  foot,  I  perceived  it  was  a 
human  eye.  One  of  the  bodies  was  terribly  disfigured  ;  the 
whole  of  the  front  part  of  the  head  had  been  sliced  off  as 
though  with  an  adze,  leaving  only  the  back  of  the  brain  vis- 
ible. Early  in  the  morning  I  was  roused  from  a  troubled 
doze  by  six  or  eight  solemn-looking  elderly  Japanese,  who 
announced  that  they  were  the  imperial  physicians  come  to 
inquire  after  my  health.  I  positively  refused  to  allow  them 
to  remove  the  bandages  and  examine  the  wounds;  so  they 
contented  themselves  with  looking  very  wise,  examining  my 
tongue,  and  placing  their  ears  over  my  heart.  As  the  day 
advanced,  and  I  recovered  somewhat  from  the  excitement 
and  the  exhaustion,  I  was  surprised  at  finding  that  I  suffered 
so  little  pain,  and  felt  so  well,  considering  the  amount  of 
blood  that  I  had  lost.  So  I  scrambled  out  to  look  at  the 
scene  of  the  conflict — for  it  was  difiicult  under  the  circum- 
stances to  remain  quietly  in  bed.  I  naturally  first  visited  the 
spot  where  I  had  met  my  Japanese  opponent,  and  discovered 
that  the  reason  we  had  so  much  difficulty  in  getting  at  each 
other  was  owing  to  a  small  beam,  or  rather  rafter,  which 
spanned  the  narrow  passage,  about  seven  feet  from  the 
ground.  Its  edge  was  as  full  of  deep  sword-cuts  as  a  crimped 
herring,  any  one  of  which  would  have  been  sufficient  to  split 
open  my  skull,  which  my  antagonist  must  have  thought  un- 
usually hard.  I  evidently  owed  my  life  to  the  fact  that  I  had 
remained  stationary  under  this  beam,  which  had  acted  as  a 
permanent  and  most  effective  guard— the  cuts  I  received  being 


l62  EPISODES    IN    A    LIFE    OF    ADVENTURE. 

merely  the  tijDS  from  the  sword  as  it  glanced  off.  There  was  a 
plentiful  bespattering  of  blood  on  the  wall  at  the  side,  in  which 
was  also  indented  the  shape  of  the  handle  of  my  hunting-whip. 
The  blow  must  have  been  given  with  considerable  force  to 
make  it;  but  I  feel  convinced  that  under  such  circumstances 
one  is  for  the  moment  endowed  with  an  altogether  excep- 
tional strength.  I  now  pursued  my  investigations  into  some 
of  the  other  rooms,  which  all  bore  marks  of  the  ferocious 
nature  of  the  attack.  The  assailants  appear  to  have  slashed 
about  recklessly  in  the  dark,  in  the  hope  of  striking  a  victim. 
Some  of  the  mattresses  were  prodded  through  and  through ; 
one  bedpost  was  completely  severed  by  a  single  sword-cut; 
and  a  Bible  lying  on  a  table  was  cut  three  quarters  through. 
We  were  now  in  a  position  to  add  up  the'list  of  killed  and 
wounded,  and  estimate  results  generally,  while  we  also  had  to 
calculate  how  they  might  affect  our  own  future  position  and 
policy. 

Although  one  of  our  assailants,  a  stalwart  young  fellow 
with  a  somewhat  hang-dog  countenance,  was  taken  prisoner 
and  afterwards  executed,  we  had  some  difficulty  in  making 
out  at  the  time  of  whom  the  gang  was  actually  composed. 
That  they  were  Lonins  there  was  no  doubt.  Lonins  are  an 
outlaw  class,  the  retainers  or  clansmen  of  Daimios  who,  hav- 
ing committed  some  offence,  have  left  the  service  of  their 
prince,  and  banding  themselves  together  form  a  society  of 
desperadoes,  who  are  employed  often  by  their  old  chiefs,  to 
whom  they  continue  to  owe  a  certain  allegiance,  for  any  dar- 
ing enterprise  by  which,  if  it  fails,  he  is  not  compromised, 
while  if  they  succeed  in  it,  they  have  a  chance  of  regaining 
their  position.  The  question  was,  to  which  particular  Daimio 
these  Lonins  belonged  ;  and  upon  this  point  our  guard  was 
singularly  reticent.  Nor  was  any  light  thrown  upon  the  mat- 
ter by  the  following  document,  which  was  found  on  the  body 
of  one  of  the  gang  who  was  killed,  and  which  ran  as  follows  : 

"  I,  though  I  am  a  person  of  low  standing,  have  not  pa- 
tience to  stand  by  and  see  the  sacred  empire  defiled  by  for- 


ATTACK    ON    BRITISH    LEGATION    IN    JAPAN.  1 63 

eigners.  This  time  I  have  determined  in  my  heart  to  under- 
take to  follow  out  my  master's  will.  Though,  being  altogether 
humble  myself,  I  cannot  make  the  might  of  the  country  to 
shine  on  foreign  nations,  yet  with  a  little  faith,  and  a  little 
warrior's  power,  I  wish  in  my  heart  separately,  though  I  am 
a  person  of  low  degree,  to  bestow  upon  my  country  one  out 
of  a  great  many  benefits.  If  this  thing  from  time  to  time 
may  cause  the  foreigners  to  retire,  and  partly  tranquillize 
the  minds  of  the  mikado  and  the  government,  I  shall  take 
to  myself  the  highest  praise.  Regardless  of  my  own  life, 
I  am  determined  to  set  out."  Here  follow  fourteen  signa- 
tures. 

This  document,  while  it  showed  that  the  motive  which 
suggested  the  attack  was  the  hope  that  it  might  frighten  us 
out  of  the  country,  also  proved  that  the  number  who  had 
been  engaged  in  it,  on  this  occasion,  was  fourteen.  Some 
years  afterwards  I  met  several  Japanese  in  London,  and  had 
some  opportunities  of  being  of  service  to  them.  I  happened 
one  day  to  mention  to  one  of  them  that  I  had  been  in  the 
British  legation  on  the  night  of  this  attack.  "You  don't 
say  so  !"  he  replied.  "  How  glad  I  am  that  you  escaped 
safely!  for  I,  to  whom  you  have  shown  so  much  kindness, 
planned  the  whole  affair,  and  was  in  Sinagawa,  just  outside 
the  gates,  all  that  night,  though,  not  being  a  Lonin  myself,  I 
did  not  take  an  active  part  in  it."  He  then  told  me  that  the 
Lonins  belonged  to  Prince  Mito,  upon  whom,  from  his  known 
hostility  to  foreigners,  our  suspicion  had  rested  from  the  first ; 
and  as  a  reminiscence  of  the  event,  in  addition  to  the  one  I 
already  carried  on  my  arm,  he  presented  me  with  his  photo- 
graph. We  now  heard  that  three  of  the  Lonins,  to  avoid  be- 
ing captured  alive,  had  committed  suicide  by  ripping  them- 
selves up,  an  example  which  was  followed  by  two  more  a  day 
or  two  afterwards,  making  the  total  list  of  killed  and  wounded 
twenty-eight,  which  was  composed  as  follow: 


164  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE   OF    ADVENTURE. 

Defenders. 

Killed. 

I  Tycoon's  guard.  i  Porter.  i  Groom. 

Severely  tvozi  tided. 

I  Secretary  of  Legation.       i  Porter. 

I  Tycoon's  guard.  2  Servants  of  the  Legation. 

I  Daimio's  guard. 

Slightly  1001 1  tided. 

1  Consul.  2  Daimio's  guard. 

7  Tycoon's  guard.  i  Priest  of  the  temple. 

Assailants. 

Killed. 

1  on  the  spot. 

3  tracked  next  day,  committed  suicide. 

2  tracked  later,  committed  suicide. 
1  captured,  wounded,  and  executed. 

Killed,  .  ,  .  II 

Wounded,      .  .  .  17 

Total,  .  .  28 

We  heard  afterwards  that  the  six  Lonins  still  unaccounted 
for  were  caught  and  executed  at  intervals  later,  but  had  no 
means  of  verifying  the  statement ;  but  whether  it  were  true  or 
not,  the  whole  forms  a  record  of  a  tolerably  bloody  night's 
work.  We  were  strongly  recommended  by  the  government 
to  place  three  of  the  heads  of  the  Lonins  over  our  gateway 
as  a  terror  to  evil-doers,  but  I  cannot  remember  whether  this 
advice  was  followed  or  not.  We  were  now  able  to  gather 
from  our  servants  many  incidents  of  the  attack.  It  seems 
that  our  assailants  first  knocked  at  the  outside  gate,  but,  be- 
ing refused  admittance,  scaled  the  fence  and  killed  the  por- 
ter. In  passing  up  the  avenue  in  front  of  the  stables,  they 
came  across  a  groom,  whom  they  also  killed.  They  then 
slew  a  dog,  and  severely  wounded  the  cook,  who  seems  to 
have  heard  a  noise  and  gone  out  to  see  the  cause  of  it.  In 
like  manner  they  captured  a  watchman,  whom  they  tried  to 
persuade  to  show  them  the  way;  but  he  managed  to  escape, 


ATTACK    ON    BRITISH    LEGATION    IN    JAPAN.  165 

receiving,  as  he  did  so,  two  severe  cuts  on  the  back  ;  however, 
he  ultimately  succeeded  in  concealing  himself  in  a  lotus-pond. 
This  man's  back  presented  the  most  ghastly  appearance,  and 
I  did  not  think  he  could  have  lived.  The  Japanese  have  a 
treatment  of  their  own  for  sword-cuts,  derived  from  much  ex- 
perience in  them.  Instead  of  bringing  the  edges  of  the  skin 
as  closely  together  as  possible,  they  plug  the  wound  with 
chewed  paper,  a  method  which,  if  it  is  efficacious,  leaves  the 
most  hideous  marks  of  the  gash.  The  band  now  seems  to 
have  scattered,  and  to  have  broken  into  the  temple  in  parties 
of  three  or  four,  coming  across  an  unfortunate  priest  as  they 
did  so,  who,  however,  was  not  very  severely  wounded ;  and 
then  in  the  darkness  they  dashed  into  all  the  rooms,  slashing 
recklessly  about  them,  and  plunging  their  swords  through 
the  mattresses  in  the  hope  of  transfixing  a  sleeper.  There 
can  be  little  doubt  that  they  would  have  succeeded  in  their 
purpose,  had  it  not  been  for  the  lateness  of  the  hour  at  which 
most  of  us  had  retired  to  rest. 

Before  daybreak  Sir  Rutherford  Alcock  had  despatched 
an  express  messenger  to  Captain  Craigie  of  H.M.S.  Ring- 
dove, then  lying  at  Yokohama,  twenty  miles  distant,  describ- 
ing the  position  of  matters,  and  urgently  requesting  him  to 
come  at  once  to  our  assistance.  Meantime  the  native  guards 
had  been  increased  to  five  hundred  men.  At  one  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon  we  were  cheered  by  the  sight  of  twenty  blue- 
jackets, led  by  their  officers,  tramping  up  the  avenue,  their 
faces  beaming  with  the  anticipation  of  a  possible  fight  in 
store.  Their  arrival  inspired  a  confidence  which  our  pre- 
viously defenceless  condition  probably  exaggerated ;  for  what 
could  so  few  even  well-armed  men  do  against  the  hostile 
population  by  whom  we  were  surrounded,  had  they  chosen 
to  renew  the  attack,  which  we  considered  highly  probable  ? 
They  were  accompanied  by  Monsieur  Duchesne  de  Belle- 
cour,  the  French  minister,  who,  on  learning  of  our  adventure, 
instantly  put  himself  on  board  the  Ringdove,  bringing  with 
him  a  party  of  French  sailors,  ^'pour  partager  les  dangers,^' 


1 66  EPISODES    IN  A   LIFE   OF  ADVENTURE, 

as  he  chivalrously  remarked.  Our  most  welcome  reinforce- 
ment instantly  set  to  work  improving  our  means  of  defence. 
The  palisades  all  round  were  looked  to  and  strengthened, 
and  every  conceivable  measure  of  precaution  taken,  to  pre- 
pare for  another  attack  during  the  night,  which  seemed  highly 
possible  —  for  we  thought  that  the  escaped  Lonins  might 
spend  the  day  in  recruiting  their  numbers,  and  assault  us  in 
much  stronger  force.  We  heard,  from  various  sources,  that 
the  city  was  in  the  highest  state  of  excitement,  and  we  felt, 
therefore,  that  we  had  only  as  yet,  perhaps,  been  actors  in 
the  first  scene  of  a  drama,  the  denouement  of  which  it  was 
impossible  to  foresee.  At  the  same  time,  we  quite  felt  that 
the  decision  at  which  our  minister  had  arrived  was  the  right 
one,  and  that  we  must  hold  our  position  at  all  hazards,  as 
it  would  never  do  to  allow  either  the  Japanese  government 
or  people  to  suppose  that  we  could  be  frightened  by  isolated 
acts  of  violence  into  abandoning  rights  which  had  been  sol- 
emnly assured  to  us  by  treaty.  With  the  exception  of  the 
American,  there  was  no  other  foreign  legation  in  Yedo  at 
the  time,  and  it  had  so  far  escaped  molestation.  In  antici- 
pation of  a  lively  night,  an  elaborate  system  of  sentries  was 
organized  upon  a  somewhat  composite  basis.  At  both  the 
gates,  and  at  various  points  in  the  grounds,  was  a  mixed 
guard  of  Japanese  and  English  or  French,  while  at  every 
bedroom-door  a  Japanese  and  a  blue-jacket  kept  watch  to- 
gether. I  don't  think  anybody  slept  much  that  night;  and 
whenever  I  did  fall  into  a  doze,  it  was  only  to  wake  with  a 
start  from  a  dream  in  which  I  was  being  attacked.  The 
bamboo  rattle  of  the  Japanese  watchmen,  associated  as  it 
was  with  my  first  alarm,  produced  a  painful  impression  upon 
my  weakened  nervous  system  ;  and  it  was  a  relief  to  gaze 
at  my  two  sentries  stolidly  facing  each  other  from  opposite 
sides  of  the  doorway,  both  armed  to  the  teeth  according  to 
the  fashion  of  their  respective  civilizations,  unable  to  inter- 
change an  intelligible  word,  but  each,  no  doubt,  entertaining 
some  curious  speculations  in  regard  to  the  other. 


ATTACK   ON   BRITISH   LEGATION    IN  JAPAN.  167 

All  through  that  first  night  I  fancied  I  heard  the  angry 
murmur  of  the  dense  population  by  which  we  were  surround- 
ed, who  seemed  to  me  as  sleepless  as  ourselves;  but  this 
may  only  have  been  the  effect  of  a  fevered  imagination. 
The  night  passed  off  without  an  alarm,  but  it  was  only  the 
first  of  a  series  in  which  this  unpleasant  state  of  tension  was 
in  no  degree  relaxed.  Nor  did  the  days  bring  much  relief. 
Sinister  and  unpleasant  rumors  were  constantly  reaching  us 
through  sources  of  information  which,  it  is  true,  were  not  to 
be  much  relied  upon,  for  they  were  Japanese,  though  in  some 
cases  more  or  less  secret.  It  was  not  safe  for  a  foreigner  to 
show  himself  outside  the  gates,  so  that  we  felt  more  or  less 
beleagured,  w^hile  official  visits  were  paid  and  communica- 
tions were  being  kept  up  between  the  minister  and  the  Jap- 
anese government.  Nobody  thought  of  laying  aside  his 
revolver  for  a  moment ;  and  whether  he  was  eating  his  meals 
or  copying  a  despatch,  it  was  always  placed  on  the  table 
beside  him. 

Under  these  circumstances  I  was  only  an  encumbrance, 
for  I  was  unable  to  use  either  arm,  and  my  wounds  needed 
more  serious  attention  than  it  was  possible  to  give  them  on 
shore.  After  the  first  two  days,  therefore,  I  was  put  on 
board  the  I^ingdove,  under  the  care  of  the  assistant-surgeon. 
Captain  Craigie,  who  was  living  on  shore,  most  kindly  placed 
his  cabin  at  my  disposal;  and  here  I  entered  upon  a  series 
of  experiences  which,  in  their  way,  were  the  most  disagree- 
able which  it  has  ever  been  my  lot  to  encounter. 

After  the  wound  on  my  right  shoulder  was  sewn  up,  my 
right  arm  was  bandaged  to  my  side,  so  as  not  to  open  the 
sutures;  my  left  arm  was  also  firmly  bandaged,  so  that  I 
was  deprived  of  the  use  of  both,  and  had  to  be  fed  by  my 
servant.  Then,  from  loss  or  poverty  of  blood,  I  became 
covered  with  boils,  which,  of  course,  were  worse  just  under 
the  bandages.  In  addition  to  this,  ophthalmia  broke  out 
among  the  crew,  and  I  got  it  in  both  eyes.  The  thermom- 
eter was  standing  at  95°.     I  was  as  red  as  a  lobster  from 


l68  EPISODES    IN    A    LIFE    OF    ADVENTURE. 

prickly  heat,  which  produced  an  incessant  irritation,  and  the 
cabin  buzzed  with  mosquitoes  like  a  beehive.  A  bandage 
over  both  eyes  kept  me  in  total  darkness;  and  it  was  as 
difficult  to  lie  on  my  back  on  account  of  the  boils,  as  on 
either  side  because  of  my  arms.  The  monotony  of  this  exist- 
ence was  only  relieved  by  having  myself  constantly  scratched; 
by  indicating  the  localities  of  mosquitoes  I  wished  killed; 
by  having  nitrate  of  silver  poured  into  both  eyes,  which  felt 
very  much  as  if  they  were  being  extracted  with  corkscrews; 
by  having  my  wounds  cleaned,  plastered,  and  attended  to; 
by  being  fed,  and  smoking.  It  is  for  such  emergencies 
that  a  beneficent  Providence  has  especially  provided  to- 
bacco. 

As  every  available  man  was  on  shore,  there  was  nobody 
to  talk  to  except  the  assistant-surgeon  and  the  second  mas- 
ten  It  was  just  when  I  was  suffering  the  most  acutely  from 
this  accumulation  of  miseries  that  we  had  another  serious 
night-alarm.  I  was  vainly  trying  to  find  the  best  position  to 
doze  in  when  I  heard  a  great  scrimmage  on  deck,  and  some 
sharp  words  of  command  given  in  an  excited  tone.  Rous- 
ing B.,  who  was  sleeping  near  me,  I  told  him  to  hurry  on 
deck  and  see  what  was  the  matter.  In  a  moment  he  came 
back  in  the  highest  state  of  excitement,  with  the  pleasing 
intelligence  that  an  armed  Japanese  junk  was  bearing  down 
to  board  us,  and  that  everybody  was  on  deck  with  pikes  and 
other  weapons  of  defence.  As  all  the  combatant  part  of  the 
crew  had  been  landed  for  the  defence  of  the  legation,  leaving 
only  the  engineers,  stokers,  cook,  steward,  and  one  or  two 
others  on  board — the  Ringdove  was  only  a  gunboat — this 
information  was  not  reassuring.  It  seemed  that  sooner  or 
later  I  was  destined  to  meet  the  fate  of  a  rat  in  a  trap. 
Listening  anxiously,  I  heard  the  shouting  increasing,  evi- 
dently now  proceeding  from  Japanese  throats,  and  then  felt 
a  great  bump.  Apparently  the  climax  had  arrived,  and  I 
sent  B.  up  again  to  assist  in  repelling  the  boarders.  In  two 
or  three  minutes  the  noise  ceased,  and  he  reappeared,  accom- 


ATTACK  ON   BRITISH   LEGATION    IN   JAPAN.  169 

panied  this  time  by  the  doctor,  who  told  me  that  the  junk 
had  sheered  off.  Whether  the  collision  had  been  with  hos- 
tile intent,  and  those  on  board  had  changed  their  minds  on 
finding  us  prepared  for  them,  and  abandoned  the  idea  of 
attempting  to  take  us,  or  whether  it  was  simply  the  result 
of  clumsy  navigation,  remained  a  mystery,  which  the  dark- 
ness of  the  night,  and  the  suddenness  of  the  whole  episode, 
rendered  it  impossible  to  solve. 

If  my  various  tortures  were  severe  while  they  lasted,  the 
length  of  their  duration  was  fortunately  short.  Owing  to  the 
fact  that  they  were  unaccompanied  by  any  fever,  and  that  I 
could  eat  well,  I  speedily  began  to  regain  strength,  and  in 
less  than  a  week  was  able  to  go  on  deck.  Here  I  began  to 
revel  in  a  delightful  feeling  of  security,  which  had  become 
quite  a  novel  sensation ;  the  ophthalmia  was  cured,  and  I 
could  indulge  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  the  novel  aquatic  life 
by  which  I  was  surrounded — in  watching  the  quaint-shaped 
junks  passing  to  and  fro,  and  the  no  less  quaint-looking  fish- 
ermen plying  their  vocation  after  their  peculiar  and  original 
methods,  in  their  no  less  peculiar  and  original  costume,  which 
often  consisted  of  absolutely  nothing  except  a  bandage  over 
their  noses,  the  reason  for  which  I  never  discovered.  Their 
chief  occupation  seemed  to  be  to  prod  the  muddy  bottom  of 
the  bay  with  long  tridents  for  eels.  Then  there  was  historic 
Fusi-yama,  with  its  beautiful  conical  summit  towering  over 
all,  and  the  city  of  Yedo,  with  its  extensive  suburbs  strag- 
gling for  miles  all  round  the  margin  of  the  bay. 

A  few  days  later  I  was  glad  to  find  myself  able  to  obey  a 
summons  from  Sir  Rutherford  Alcock  to  come  on  shore  in 
order  to  be  present  at  a  conference  with  some  of  the  chief 
ministers  of  state  on  the  subject  of  the  recent  attack.  It 
was  a  blazing  hot  day,  and  when  I  reached  the  shore,  exactly 
opposite  the  gate  of  the  legation,  I  found  the  intervening 
street  occupied  by  the  procession  of  an  important  daimio. 
On  the  occasion  of  the  progress  of  one  of  these  great  feudal 
princes,  they  used  to  be  followed  by  a  small  army  o{  samurai 


170  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE    OF   ADVENTURE. 

or  clansmen,  numbering  sometimes  as  many  as  a  thousand, 
all  two-sworded  swash-bucklers,  all  ready  to  fight  on  the 
smallest  provocation  to  uphold  the  dignity  of  their  chief, 
and  exceedingly  sensitive  on  the  point  of  honor.  The  na- 
tives, on  meeting  a  procession  of  this  kind,  were  expected 
either  to  move  away  from  the  road  altogether,  or  humbly 
to  prostrate  themselves  while  it  passed.  Under  no  circum- 
stances was  anybody  allowed  to  cross  it.  This  was  an  insult 
which  it  was  considered  should  be  wiped  out  by  the  death 
.of  the  rash  man  who  should  offer  it.  Since  the  great  revo- 
lution which  practically  extinguished  the  daimios,  and  which 
was  one  of  the  results  of  intercourse  with  foreign  nations,  I 
believe  these  dangerous  processions  have  been  abolished. 
At  the  time  I  had  no  idea  of  the  extreme  tenacity  of  the 
Japanese  on  this  point  of  etiquette,  or  of  the  risk  I  should 
run  if  I  attempted  to  cross  the  procession.  I  stood  for  some 
time  watching  the  line,  which  seemed  interminable,  the  men 
marching  slowly  in  pairs.  At  last  the  heat  of  the  midday 
sun  became  so  overpowering  that  1  feared  I  should  faint. 
The  gate  of  the  legation,  only  a  dozen  yards  off,  stood  invit- 
ingly ajar,  and,  perceiving  a  wider  gap  in  the  line  than  usual, 
I  made  a  dash  through  it.  The  saimirai  were  so  much  taken 
by  surprise  that  before  they  could  draw  their  swords  I  was 
past  them,  but  not  before  I  had  time  to  perceive  their  mur- 
derous intent,  and  to  slam  the  gate  in  the  faces  of  two  or 
three  that  rushed  after  me.  After  our  conference  with  the 
ministers  was  over,  I  was  informed  by  Sir  Rutherford  that 
he  had  written  to  Sir  James  Hope,  then  admiral  on  the  sta- 
tion, requesting  his  presence,  and  that  nothing  could  be 
finally  decided  upon  until  after  a  consultation  with  him,  but 
that  he  had  determined  to  abandon  his  intention  of  going 
home  on  leave,  and  would  remain  at  his  post  until  he  received 
instructions  from  home  ;  that  he  had  further  decided  on  send- 
ing me  back  to  England  to  furnish  any  information  which 
might  be  required  in  addition  to  the  full  narrative  of  events 
contained  in  his  despatch,  and  also  to  be  the  bearer  of  a 


ATTACK  ON   BRITISH    LEGATION    IN   JAPAN.  171 

personal  letter  from  the  tycoon  to  the  queen,  apologizing  for 
the  occurrence.  The  question  of  indemnity,  and  the  nature 
of  the  satisfaction  to  be  required,  were  matters  also  to  be 
discussed;  while  the  trip  was  one  by  which,  under  the  cir- 
cumstances, my  health  could  not  fail  to  derive  benefit.  Dur- 
ing the  month  which  now  elapsed  before  the  admiral  arrived, 
the  only  event  of  importance  which  occurred  was  the  news 
that  two  ministers  of  state  who  had  come  to  see  the  tycoon 
were  attacked  by  Lonins;  they  were,  however,  bravely  de- 
fended by  their  retainers,  and,  after  a  severe  struggle,  the 
Lonins  were  completely  defeated,  many  being  made  prison- 
ers. I  now  began  to  perceive  how  necessary  it  was,  as  a 
measure  of  self  protection,  for  daimios  always  to  be  attended 
by  a  large  escort. 

At  last,  about  the  middle  of  August,  Admiral  Hope  arrived, 
accompanied  by  Sir  Hercules  Robinson,  then  Governor  of 
Hong-Kong,  and  it  was  determined  that  we  should  lose  no 
time  in  paying  an  official  visit  in  grand  state  to  the  Japanese 
minister  for  foreign  affairs.  This  involved  passing  through 
the  most  crowded  and  disaffected  quarters  of  the  town,  for  a 
distance  of  about  two  miles.  I  scarcely  knew  whether  I  were 
sufficiently  recovered  to  make  this  effort  on  horseback,  but 
the  alternative  was  to  be  cooped  up  in  a  norimon — a  sort  of 
palanquin,  which,  however,  had  the  disadvantage  of  being 
square,  and  not  oblong,  like  the  latter,  and  thus  obliged  me 
to  maintain  a  squatting  position  during  the  whole  time.  As 
I  considered  that  the  chances  were  rather  in  favor  of  our  be- 
ing attacked  than  otherwise,  I  preferred  riding,  although  I 
had  to  be  led,  as  I  was  unable  to  hold  the  reins.  Still,  with 
a  sharp  pair  of  spurs,  I  had  always  the  chance  that  my  steed, 
in  a  wild  and  headlong  flight  of  his  own,  would  carry  me  out 
of  the  me/ec. 

The  party  consisted  of  the  minister,  the  admiral,  Sir  Her- 
cules Robinson,  several  naval  officers,  members  of  the  lega- 
tion, and  myself,  escorted  between  two  lines  of  marines  and 
blue-jackets,  who  certainly  looked  as  if  they  were  prepared 


172  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

to  give  a  good  account  of  any  Lonins  who  might  be  rash 
enough  to  attack  us.  The  streets  through  which  we  passed 
were  densely  crowded  with  scowli"ng  multitudes,  among  whom 
the  two-sworded  gentry,  whom  we  knew  entertained  towards 
us  feelings  of  special  animosity,  were  very  numerous.  Our 
progress  was  necessarily  slow,  so  that  it  was  an  hour  before 
we  arrived  at  the  building  where  the  two  ministers  for  for- 
eign affairs  were  waiting  to  receive  us.  We  found  them  at- 
tended by  many  other  officials,  for  it  was  the  custom  in  Japan 
never  to  allow  these  audiences  to  assume  a  private  charac- 
ter; and  many  of  those  who  were  present  exercised  the  func- 
tions oi  metsnke — in  other  words,  of  government  spies  or  re- 
porters. 

After  the  first  formal  compliments  had  taken  place,  in  ac- 
cordance with  preconcerted  arrangement  all  the  English  offi- 
cers and  gentlemen  who  had  accompanied  us  withdrew,  leav- 
ing only  the  minister,  the  admiral,  and  myself  and  the  inter- 
preters. This  was  a  signal  for  all  the  Japanese,  except  the 
two  ministers,  to  retire — an  unprecedented  event,  so  far,  in 
the  annals  of  Japanese  diplomacy ;  but  it  was  to  be  account- 
ed for  by  the  fact  that  the  ministers  had  a  confidential  com- 
munication to  make  to  us  affecting  another  European  power 
which  could  not  otherwise  have  been  kept  quiet ;  it  was 
therefore  in  their  own  interest  to  break  through  their  ordi- 
nary course  of  procedure. 

After  discussing  this  question,  Sir  Rutherford  Alcock  in- 
formed them  that  I  was  to  be  the  bearer  to  England  of  the 
imperial  missive  to  the  queen,  and  we  talked  over  the  possi- 
ble chances  of  another  attack,  and  the  inconveniences  which 
seemed  to  attend  an  official  residence  in  the  capital  of  Ja- 
pan. The  first  minister,  Ando  Tsusimano  Kami,  remarked,  in 
the  course  of  this  conversation,  that  peril  to  life  was  an  inci- 
dent inseparable  from  high  office  in  his  country,  and  that 
everybody  who  filled  it,  whether  foreign  or  Japanese,  must, 
as  a  matter  of  course,  run  the  risk  of  being  murdered.  I 
thought  then  that  this  was  a  mere  complimentary  way  of  rec- 


ATTACK   OxV    BRITISH    LEGATION    IN    JAPAN.  1 73 

onciling  us  to  what  was  intended  to  be  sooner  or  later  the 
invariable  fate  of  foreign  officials  in  Japan.  But  a  very  short 
time  afterwards  poor  Ando  Tsusimano  Kami  proved,  in  his 
own  person,  the  unjustness  of  my  suspicions  ;  for  he  was  at- 
tacked by  a  band  of  eight  Lonins,  dragged  from  his  norimon, 
and  so  severely  wounded  that  for  some  time  his  life  was  de- 
spaired of.  So  far  as  I  was  personally  concerned,  the  most 
important  result  of  this  interview  was  the  decision  which 
was  arrived  at — that  before  going  to  England  I  should  pro- 
ceed in  H.M.S.  Ringdove  to  the  island  of  Tsusima,  situated 
in  the  straits  of  the  Corea,  accompanied  by  Admiral  Hope 
in  his  flag-ship,  to  investigate  the  truth  of  the  report  which 
we  had  received  of  the  Russians  having  made  a  permanent 
settlement  in  that  island,  contrary  to  treaty,  and  to  take 
measures  accordingly.  A  few  days  afterwards  I  sailed  from 
Yedo  on  this  most  interesting  mission. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

A  VISIT  TO  TSUSIMA  :    AN  INCIDENT  OF  RUSSIAN  AGGRESSION. 

The  circumstances  under  which  my  visit  to  Tsusima  was 
made,  as  the  result  of  my  interview  with  the  Japanese  minis- 
ters, described  in  the  last  chapter,  derive  additional  interest 
from  the  fact  that  now,  after  an  interval  of  twenty-six  years, 
Russia  is  manifesting  aggressive  tendencies  in  the  same  di- 
rection. This  is  evident  from  the  following  paragraph,  tak- 
en from  the  Times  of  the  2d  September,  1885.  It  was,  how- 
ever, in  i86i,and  not  in  the  previous  year,  as  erroneously 
stated,  that  the  incident  occurred  : 

"  Russia  in  the  Cokea.— German  papers  publish  the  following  ex- 
tract from  the  Vladivostok — a  journal  published  in  the  seaport  of  the 
same  name  at  the  extreme  southern  corner  of  the  Russian  Asiatic  coast : 
'  The  importance  of  Vladivostok  as  a  seaport  is  seriously  affected  by 
the  fact  that  it  is  frozen  in  winter.  Hence  the  opinion  has  been  gaining 
ground  that  either  Port  Lazarev,  in  Corea,  or  the  island  of  Quelpaert 
(33°  II'  N.  lat.),  or  that  of  Tsusima  (34^^40'  N.  lat.),  should  be  substituted 
for  Vladivostok.  As  to  Port  Lazarev,  it  is  by  no  means  certain  that  it 
is  free  from  ice  all  the  year  round ;  and,  what  is  of  greater  moment,  it 
would  be  necessary  to  take  possession  of  about  the  half  of  the  Corean 
peninsula  in  order  to  secure  undisturbed  occupation  of  the  port — a  pro- 
ceeding certain  to  provoke  the  enmity  of  Japan.  The  situation  of  Quel- 
paert is  excellent,  but  unfortunately  there  is  not  a  good  haven  in  the  isl- 
and. The  island  of  Tsusima  was  visited  about  i860  by  the  Russian  frig- 
ate Possadnik,  and  the  Russian  flag  was  hoisted,  but  subsequently  with- 
drawn.  It  is  some  six  hundred  miles  distant  from  our  own  territory,  and 
so  could  not  well  be  made  a  basis  ofoperations.  It  would  seem,  there- 
fore, unavoidable  to  preserve  Vladivostok  as  the  base  of  all  serious  op- 
erations ;  but  to  occupy  and  fortify  Tsusima  as  a  marine  station,  well 
armed  and  provisioned.     It  would  thus  help  to  make  good  some  of  the 


A   VISIT   TO   TSUSIMA.  1 75 

drawbacks  of  Vladivostok.'  In  connection  with  this  suggestion,  it  may 
be  mentioned  that  the  island  of  Tsusima  is  Japanese  territory,  and  could 
not  be  occupied  except  with  the  consent  of  the  government  of  Japan." 

It  is  to  be  remarked  that  the  last  sentence  is  the  comment 
of  the  German  paper,  and  does  not  form  part  of  the  quota- 
tion from  the  Vladivostok. 

I  sailed  from  Japan  in  l^.W.'S^ .  Ringdove  in  August,  under 
instructions  from  Sir  Rutherford  Alcock,  Admiral  Hope  pro- 
ceeding thither  at  the  same  time  in  his  flag-ship,  to  render 
such  assistance  and  advice  as  might  seem  necessary.  The 
timidity  of  the  Japanese  government  at  the  lime  was  so 
great  that  they  declined  to  give  us  any  official  assistance,  for 
fear  of  becoming  embroiled  with  Russia,  and  I  was  obliged 
to  proceed  to  Nagasaki  for  the  purpose  of  picking  up  an  in- 
terpreter. It  is  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  from  that 
port  to  Tsusima ;  and  on  the  morning  following  our  depart- 
ure from  Nagasaki  we  found  ourselves  in  sight  of  the  island, 
its  twin  peaks  rising  to  a  height  of  from  fifteen  hundred  to 
eighteen  hundred  feet,  heavily  timbered  to  their  summits, 
with  here  and  there  a  clearing  and  a  wreath  of  smoke,  indi- 
cating the  presence  of  a  scattered  population.  We  were  ap- 
proaching the  island  from  the  southeast,  and  were  in  entire 
ignorance  of  its  ports  or  centres  of  habitation.  We  knew 
that  it  was  the  territory  of  a  prince  or  daimio,  and  we  pre- 
sumed that  it  must  have  a  capital,  so  we  sent  a  boat  on 
shore  as  we  neared  a  fishing  hamlet,  to  ask  the  way  to  it. 
In  pursuance  of  the  directions  thus  received,  we  continued 
steaming  for  a  couple  of  hours  along  the  southeastern  shores 
of  the  island,  and  were  much  struck  by  its  evident  fertility, 
its  fine  forests,  and  pretty  scenery,  as  we  opened  up  one 
wooded  valley  after  another.  Suddenly  we  came  upon  a 
small,  semicircular  harbor,  affording  an  admirable  shelter  for 
country  craft,  with  a  narrow  entrance  between  projecting 
wooded  blufts.  At  the  head  of  this  little  haven,  and  skirting 
its  shore,  was  the  town  of  Fatchio,  a  place  containing  possi- 
bly from  ten  thousand  to  fifteen  thousand  inhabitants,  and 


176  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE    OF   ADVENTURE. 

the  residence  of  the  daimio,  whose  palace,  I  was  afterwards 
informed,  was  about  four  miles  distant. 

We  did  not  go  much  beyond  the  mouth  of  the  harbor,  be- 
ing entirely  ignorant  of  its  depth  of  water  and  the  character 
of  the  anchorage  ;  and  I  immediately  went  on  shore  to  open 
up  communication  with  the  inhabitants.  This,  however,  did 
not  prove  a  very  easy  matter.  First,  some  petty  officials 
came  down  and  warned  us  off.  Finding  that  we  paid  no  at- 
tention to  their  gesticulation,  and  insisted  on  landing,  they 
retreated  a  few  yards  as  we  jumped  on  shore,  forming,  with 
the  assistance  of  a  crowd  which  now  joined  them,  a  semi- 
circle at  a  distance  of  a  few  yards,  without  manifesting  any 
signs  of  hostility,  but  with  the  apparent  intention  of  amiably 
and  good-naturedly  barring  our  way,  should  we  attempt  to 
go  into  the  town.  Our  interpreter  now  commenced  a  parley, 
the  result  of  which  was  that  we  were  shown  into  a  pretty 
little  wooden  erection  like  a  summer-house,  on  the  margin  of 
the  sea,  at  a  distance  of  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  the 
town,  and  requested  to  wait  there  until  our  arrival  and  wishes 
were  reported  in  the  proper  quarter.  Here  we  were  objects 
of  interest  to  an  admiring  crowd,  principally  composed  of 
small  boys,  for  more  than  an  hour,  when  a  messenger  re- 
turned with  the  information  that  the  officials  refused  to  re- 
ceive me,  and  requested  me  to  return  on  board  the  ship  and 
leave  them  in  peace.  This  I  positively  declined  to  do.  As 
it  was  now  getting  on  towards  the  afternoon,  I  said  that,  so 
far  from  complying  with  their  wishes,  I  intended  to  send  for 
my  meals  and  sleeping  arrangements,  and  live  in  the  sum- 
mer-house— which  at  that  time  of  year  formed  delightfully 
cool  quarters — if  necessary,  for  a  week.  I  explained  that  my 
patience  was  inexhaustible,  that  my  time  was  unlimited,  and 
that  I  had  the  less  scruple  in  forcing  myself  upon  their  hos- 
pitality, as  I  should  ask  them  for  nothing,  not  even  for  pro- 
tection, as  I  should  make  arrangements  for  a  guard  of  blue- 
jackets to  be  permanently  stationed  on  shore  for  my  protec- 
tion.    Whereas,  if  the  prince  would  accord  me  an  interview, 


A    VISIT   TO   TSUSIMA.  1 77 

it  would  probably  not  last  an  hour,  and  we  should  relieve 
them  of  our  presence  the  same  evening.  The  messenger 
hurried  off  on  hearing  the  disagreeable  alternative  I  had  pro- 
posed, and  in  less  than  an  hour  I  saw  that  it  had  produced 
its  effect ;  for  a  norimon,  or  native  palanquin,  appeared  on  the 
strand,  being  hurried  along  on  the  shoulders  of  its  bearers, 
and  containing  a  two-sworded  official  of  a  very  different  rank 
from  the  humble  functionary  with  whom  I  had  hitherto  been 
in  communication.  He  was  accompanied  by  a  man  of  a 
lower  grade,  and  for  a  minute  or  two  we  vied  with  each  other 
in  the  lowness  of  our  bows  and  the  cmprcssc7nc7-tt  of  our  salu- 
tations. Then,  with  many  apologies  and  compliments,  I  was 
informed  that  the  daimio  was  too  ill  to  receive  me  ;  and  in 
order  to  convince  me  that  this  was  no  sham  illness  contrived 
for  the  occasion,  many  details  were  entered  into  which  were 
quite  unnecessary,  for  they  in  no  degree  removed  my  suspi- 
cions. The  most  interesting  items  of  information  which  I 
afterwards  obtained  in  regard  to  this  august  personage  were, 
that  he  possessed  great  influence  at  Yedo,  where  his  son  was 
retained  as  a  hostage  for  his  good  behavior  ;  that  he  was  of 
gigantic  stature — report  said  seven  feet  high  ;  that  he  was 
afflicted  with  a  cutaneous  disease;  and  that  he  had  one  wife, 
twelve  concubines,  and  forty-three  children.  As  I  found  that 
he  resolutely  declined  to  receive  me,  I  finally  consented  to 
an  interview  with  his  first  minister  instead  ;  but  inasmuch  as 
our  appearance  in  the  harbor  had,  according  to  my  inform- 
ant, already  produced  great  consternation  in  the  town,  and  as 
the  peace  of  mind  of  the  inhabitants  would  be  still  further 
disturbed  by  the  presence  of  a  foreigner  in  their  streets — an 
event  hitherto  unknown — and  as  the  building  in  which  I  was 
to  be  received  lay  at  the  other  extremity  of  the  town,  I  was 
requested  to  agree  to  the  hour  for  the  meeting  being  fixed  for 
midnight,  I  was  perfectly  well  aware  that  this  was  only  an 
excuse  for  preventing  me  from  seeing  the  town  or  its  inhab- 
itants ;  but  I  was  too  well  satisfied  at  having  succeeded  so 
far  to  raise  any  objection,  and  after  a  further  interchange  of 

8* 


178  EPISODES    IN    A    LIFE    OF    ADVENTURE, 

polite  ceremony  I  returned  to  the  ship,  having  spent  nearly 
four  hours  in  the  summer-house. 

The  view  in  Fatchio  Bay  as  the  sun  set  was  enchanting; 
the  heavy  vegetation  coming  in  places  to  the  water's  edge,  in 
others  clambering  over  rocks  that  rose  precipitously  from  the 
sea;  the  prettily  situated  little  town  nestling  among  its  gar- 
dens along  the  shore  ;  the  wooded  slopes  cut  up  into  culti- 
vated valleys,  and  rising  to  a  peak  nearly  two  thousand  feet 
above  the  sea,  into  which  a  little  river  emptied  itself— all 
formed  a  prospect  that  confirmed  the  good  taste  of  the  Rus- 
sians in  selecting  the  island  for  annexation. 

In  my  interview  with  the  official,  although  pressed  to  state 
the  reasons  of  my  visit,  I  had  absolutely  declined  to  do  so 
to  any  one  except  the  prince  himself  or  the  minister  he 
might  depute  to  receive  me ;  so  that  doubtless  the  curiosity 
of  the  authorities  was  raised  to  the  highest  pitch,  and  the 
mysterious  nature  of  my  proceedings  was  calculated  not  a 
little  to  excite  their  suspicions  ;  but  this  I  considered  a  lesser 
evil  than  prematurely  to  reveal  the  object  of  my  mission. 
About  eleven  o'clock  the  glimmer  of  Japanese  lanterns  at 
the  summer-house  told  me  that  my  escort  had  arrived  to  con- 
duct me  to  the  place  of  meeting,  and  that  the  natives  in- 
tended to  keep  faith  with  me,  in  regard  to  which  I  had  been 
in  considerable  doubt.  I  therefore  put  off  for  the  shore,  ac- 
companied by  the  captain  of  the  Ringdove  and  another  boat 
containing  a  guard  of  a  dozen  blue-jackets,  as  it  was  not  con- 
sidered wise  to  make  a  midnight  promenade  through  an  un- 
known town  totally  unattended  ;  moreover,  I  considered  it 
advisable  to  invest  the  whole  proceeding  with  as  much  im- 
portance as  possible. 

There  were,  as  far  as  I  remember,  about  twenty  smnurai^ 
or  retainers  of  the  prince,  with  two  or  three  norimons  in  wait- 
ing, and  they  looked  rather  timidly  and  suspiciously  at  the 
blue-jackets  as  they  jumped  on  shore  and  formed  in  line;  and 
indeed  the  leading  official,  who  was  the  same  with  whom  I  al- 
ready had  had  an  interview,  informed  me  that  their  presence 


A    VISIT   TO   TSUSIMA.  1 79 

was  quite  unnecessary.  But  on  this  point  I  differed  with 
him;  and  refusing  to  ensconce  myself  in  a  norimon,  from 
which  I  should  have  failed  to  see  even  the  little  that  was 
visible  in  the  dark,  I  started  off  on  foot,  between  two  files 
of  sailors,  on  my  novel  expedition. 

It  is  difficult  to  judge  distance  at  night  except  by  time  ;  but 
as  we  walked  for  more  than  half  an  hour,  the  distance  trav- 
ersed must  have  been  at  least  three  miles.  More  than  half 
of  this  was  through  the  straggling  town,  along  narrow  streets 
absolutely  deserted.  Every  house  had  been  closed  by  order, 
no  living  soul  was  to  be  seen,  not  even  a  light  glimmered 
through  the  shutters.  It  was  a  brilliantly  clear,  starlight 
night,  so  that  I  could  see  enough  to  observe  that  the  place 
differed  in  no  respect  from  an  ordinary  Japanese  third-class 
town  ;  so  we  tramped  silently  along,  the  stillness  only  occa- 
sionally disturbed  by  the  barking  of  a  dog,  until  we  emerged 
into  what  seemed  a  straggling  suburb,  when  we  turned  sud- 
denly into  a  gateway,  went  along  a  short  avenue,  and  entered 
a  building  the  external  characteristics  of  which  I  have  for- 
gotten, if,  indeed,  it  was  light  enough  to  see  them  ;  and  so 
along  a  passage,  the  walls  of  which  were  formed  of  paper 
screens,  to  an  apartment  in  which  stood  a  group  of  two- 
sworded  officials.  One  of  these,  who  proved  to  be  the  firbt 
minister  himself,  now  advanced  to  receive  me.  He  was  an 
agreeable,  intelligent-looking  man  of  about  five-and-forty, 
very  dignified  and  self-possessed  in  manner,  and  altogether 
a  good  specimen  of  his  race.  After  introducing  me  to  his 
colleagues,  of  whom  there  were  four,  if  I  remember  rightly, 
forming,  I  imagine,  a  sort  of  privy  council  to  the  prince,  I 
was  conducted  into  another  long,  narrow  room,  the  walls  of 
which  were  also  of  paper,  and  which  had  evidently  been  ar- 
ranged with  the  idea  of  meeting  the  requirements  of  foreign 
taste.  Down  the  centre  of  this  room  was  a  long,  low  table, 
about  two  feet  broad  and  twenty  feet  long,  covered  with  red 
cloth,  and  on  both  sides  were  high  benches,  almost  as  high 
as  the  table,  also  covered  with  red  cloth.     It  was  lighted  by 


I50  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

four  monster  candles,  each  on  its  own  huge  candlestick,  like 
those  in  a  Roman  Catholic  cathedral.  The  first  minister  in- 
vited me  to  sit  at  the  head  of  this  table,  which  I  declined  to 
do  unless  he  sat  by  my  side.  This  point  of  etiquette  decid- 
ed, the  other  functionaries,  the  captain  and  one  or  two  offi- 
cers of  the  Ringdove,  seated  themselves,  and  tea  was  brought 
in.  In  the  centre  of  the  table  was  the  usual  smoking  ar- 
rangement, looking  not  unlike  an  inkstand,  with  a  recepta- 
cle for  the  tobacco  on  one  side,  a  fire-ball  on  the  other, 
a  pot  to  receive  the  ashes  of  the  pipes  in  the  middle,  and  the 
pipes  themselves,  with  their  diminutive  bowls,  lying  like 
pens  in  the  tray.  As  it  only  takes  two  whiffs  to  smoke  a 
pipe,  one  smokes  at  least  twenty  in  the  course  of  a  moderate 
visit.  If  my  hosts  were  anxious  to  know  the  nature  of  my 
business,  they  manifested  no  impatience.  We  drank  several 
small  cups  of  tea,  smoked  several  pipes,  and  made  a  great 
many  inane  and  complimentary  remarks,  before  I  felt  that  I 
could  approach  the  subject  at  issue,  which  I  did  at  last  with 
the  incidental  observation  that  I  believed  we  were  not  the 
first  strangers  who  had  come  to  Tsusima,  but  that  they  had 
already  had  a  visit  from  the  Russians.  To  my  surprise  the 
minister  opened  his  eyes  with  well-feigned  astonishment,  and 
made  the  interpreter  repeat  the  remark,  as  though  he  must 
have  misunderstood  it. 

"  No,"  he  said,  when  it  was  repeated  ;  "  no  Russians  have 
ever  been  here." 

I  was  fairly  nonplussed. 

"  Will  you  explain  to  him,"  I  said  to  the  interpreter,  "  that 
I  have  had  positive  information  that  the  Russians  are  now 
in  Tsusima,  and  I  have  come  here  to  see  if  it  is  true.''" 

"  It  is  not  true,"  he  said ;  "  they  are  not  here,  and  have 
never  been  here." 

This  was  the  promising  way  in  which  our  interview  began. 
It  lasted  for  more  than  two  hours.  At  the  expiration  of  that 
time  I  had,  as  the  result  of  a  laborious  confidence-inspiring 
process,  into  the  details  of  which  it  is  not  necessary  to  enter, 


A   VISIT   TO   TSUSIMA.  l8l 

extracted  from  this  same  discreet  and  reticent  functionary 
the  fact  that  the  Russians  had  been  established  in  the  island 
for  six  months  ;  that  they  had  built  houses  for  themselves ; 
that  they  had  had  a  fight  with  the  inhabitants,  in  the  course 
of  which  one  of  the  latter  had  been  killed  ;  and  that  the 
prince  and  all  his  court  were  living  in  a  chronic  state  of 
panic  and  despair.  My  informant  further  admitted  that  they 
had  been  desired  by  the  Russians  to  keep  their  presence  in 
the  island  a  secret,  under  penalty  of  the  gravest  consequences  ; 
and  that  the  reason  he  had  denied  that  they  were  here  was 
from  the  dread  of  punishment.  Nothing  could  exceed  the 
delight  and  gratitude  manifested  by  all  present  at  the  pros- 
pect of  being  relieved  of  the  presence  of  these  unwelcome 
visitors  ;  but  they  were  still  too  timid  to  compromise  them- 
selves by  giving  us  a  guide  to  lead  us  to  where  they  were. 
All  they  would  say  was,  that  if  we  went  round  to  the  other 
side  of  the  island  we  should  find  a  large  harbor,  and  if  we 
looked  for  them  there  we  should  find  them.  At  that  time 
this  island  had  not  been  surveyed,  and  so  our  expedition  par- 
took largely  of  the  character  of  one  of  exploration.  The  dawn 
was  almost  breaking  when  our  nocturnal  interview  came  to 
an  end  ;  but  the  streets  were  still  silent,  and  the  houses  still 
hermetically  sealed,  as  we  passed  between  them  once  more 
on  our  way  back  to  the  ship. 

Steaming  out  of  Fatchio  harbor,  we  coasted  round  the 
southern  end  of  the  island  and  along  its  western  shore.  As 
we  did  so,  the  highlands  of  the  Corea  were  distinctly  visible, 
and  one  could  not  but  be  struck  with  the  commanding  posi- 
tion which  this  island  occupies  strategically,  situated  as  it  is 
in  the  centre  of  the  straits  which  separate  the  Corea  from 
Japan,  and  which  afford  access  into  the  Yellow  Sea.  We 
had  coasted  along  half  the  length  of  the  island,  which  is 
about  forty  miles  long,  when  we  observed  a  large  opening, 
as  though  it  wei,e  divided  in  the  middle  by  straits,  and  into 
this  we  steamed.  To  our  amazement  we  found  ourselves  in 
a  perfect  labyrinth  of  lanes  of  water.     In  every  direction  to 


l82  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE    OF   ADVENTURE. 

the  right  and  left  and  in  front  of  us  there  spread  an  intricate 
network  of  deep,  narrow  channels,  divided  by  rocky  promon- 
tories clothed  with  heavy  timber.  Large  forest-trees  sprang 
from  the  water's  edge,  twining  their  huge  roots  among  the 
rocks,  and  drooping  their  foliage  into  the  water.  It  was  so 
deep  even  close  to  the  shore  that  it  was  difficult  to  find  anch- 
orage; and  our  excitement  was  so  great,  in  our  desire  to  ex- 
plore this  strange  and  unknown  water  retreat,  that  we  were 
off  in  boats  before  the  anchor  was  down.  We  found,  as  we 
paddled  along  these  singular  channels,  that  we  were  in  a  har- 
bor in  which  whole  fleets  might  be  concealed  from  observa- 
tion— hidden  away,  so  to  speak,  among  the  trees.  Here  and 
there  the  inlets  expanded,  so  as  to  form  capacious  harbors, 
again  narrowing,  often  to  a  breadth  of  scarce  a  hundred 
yards.  There  was  no  sign  of  human  habitation  anywhere ; 
the  only  evidence  of  man  were  two  Buddhist  or  Sintoo  shrines, 
perched  upon  pinnacles  of  rock  under  the  shade  of  huge, 
wide -spreading  trees,  and  approached  by  rock-cut  steps. 
For  hours  we  pulled  about  in  this  magnificent  haven,  never 
tired  of  wondering  at  its  capacity,  its  safety  from  storms,  its 
freedom  from  dangers  to  navigation,  the  extraordinary  beauty 
of  the  scenery  by  which  it  was  surrounded,  the  richness  of 
the  vegetation,  and  the  absolute  calm  and  stillness  which 
seemed  to  brood  over  the  whole  landscape. 

But  all  this  time  we  saw  nothing  of  the  Russians.  We 
passed  from  one  deep  creek  into  another,  over  the  glassy 
surface  of  the  water,  only  to  exchange  their  unbroken  soli- 
tudes, and  to  find  some  new  and  unexpected  channel  wind- 
ing off  in  some  fresh  direction.  At  last,  in  one  of  these,  our 
attention  was  suddenly  attracted  by  some  tapering  spars  that 
seemed  to  shoot  out  of  the  branches  of  a  tree  ;  and  rounding 
a  corner,  we  came  upon  the  Russian  frigate,  moored  literall}', 
stem  and  stern,  to  the  branches  of  a  pair  of  forest  giants, 
and  with  a  plank-way  to  the  shore. 

If  we  were  startled  to  come  upon  her  thus  unexpectedly, 
our  surprise  can  have  been  nothing  to  that  of  those  on  board 


A   VISIT   TO   TSUSIMA.  1 83 

at  seeing  an  English  man-of-war's  boat  pull  into  the  sort  of 
pirate's  cove  in  which  they  had  stowed  themselves  away. 
Indeed,  the  Russian  captain  afterwards  told  me  that  he  had 
been  so  long  in  solitude  that  he  could  scarcely  believe  his 
eyes  when  we  burst  thus  suddenly  upon  them,  like  visitants 
from  some  other  world.  However,  he  was  too  much  of  a 
gentleman  to  betray  anything  but  pleasure  and  apparent 
gratification  at  receiving  me,  when  I  stepped  upon  his  deck 
and  introduced  myself  He  at  once  invited  me  most  hospi- 
tably to  his  cabin  ;  and  while  he  entertained  me  with  re- 
freshments, we  spent  a  few  minutes  in  some  very  amusing 
diplomatic  fencing.  He  was  here,  he  said,  for  hydrograph- 
ical  purposes,  and  had  made  a  survey  of  the  island,  in  obe- 
dience to  instructions.  Looking  out  of  the  cabin  window, 
from  which  was  visible  a  frame  house  with  a  barnyard,  in 
which  was  a  cow  and  some  poultry,  I  asked  him  if  he  com- 
bined agriculture  with  hydrography,  as  the  one  pursuit  im- 
plied a  more  protracted  visit  to  the  island  than  the  other. 
He  admitted  that  he  had  been  here  for  more  than  six  months; 
that  his  sur^-ey  was  finished,  but  that  he  had  received  instruc- 
tions to  remain  till  further  orders  ;  and  that,  to  pass  away 
the  time,  and  make  himself  comfortable,  he  was  doing  a  lit- 
tle farming.  I  then  went  on  shore  to  see  his  establishment. 
He  had  got  a  hospital  for  the  sick,  from  which  a  Russian 
flag  was  flying,  a  dairy  and  poultry-yard,  a  Russian  steam- 
bath,  and  a  little  cottage,  in  which  to  vary  his  residence  from 
shipboard.  There  was  a  vegetable  garden,  and  all  the  signs 
of  a  very  comfortable  little  naval  settlement,  at  least  so  far 
as  it  was  possible  for  the  crew  of  one  frigate  to  make  one. 
I  gently  hinted  at  the  existence  of  treaties,  and  so  forth  ;  but 
he  said  that  he  was  a  sailor  and  not  a  diplomatist,  and  knew 
nothing  about  them.  All  he  knew  were  his  orders.  He  de- 
nied that  he  had  had  any  dispute  of  importance  with  the  na- 
tives, with  whom,  he  declared,  he  was  on  very  good  terms 
— though,  as  their  nearest  village  was  at  some  distance,  he 
saw  very  little  of  them. 


184  EPISODES    IN    A    LIFE    OF    ADVENTURE. 

The  captain  of  the  P'ossadiiik  turned  out  such  a  charming 
companion,  and  seemed  so  delighted  to  have  his  monotony 
varied  even  by  an  inquisitive  diplomat,  that  I  was  quite 
sorry  when  the  lateness  of  the  hour  warned  me  that  I  must 
return  to  my  own  ship,  in  which,  as  I  explained  to  him,  I 
should  be  absent  for  a  day,  so  that  it  would  be  useless  for 
him  to  attempt  to  return  my  visit  at  once,  which,  however, 
I  promised  to  repeat.  That  night  we  steamed  out  to  the 
offing,  where  the  admiral  was  cruising  in  his  flag-ship,  and 
the  next  morning  I  went  on  board  and  reported  my  discov- 
ery. Soon  after  the  admiral  transferred  himself  to  the  Ring- 
dove, and  we  steamed  back  to  Tsusima  harbor,  finally  bring- 
ing her  to  Russian  Cove,  as  we  named  the  PossadniJi's  settle- 
ment. 

The  Russian  captain  now  came  and  called  and  dined  with 
us,  and  we  discussed  the  situation  in  the  most  amicable  man- 
ner; the  result  at  which  we  arrived  being,  that  the  admiral 
should  himself  go  to  Olga  Bay  on  the  coast  of  Manchuria, 
at  which  port  the  Russian  admiral  then  was,  and  present  the 
diplomatic  view  of  the  situation  to  that  functionary,  obtain- 
ing from  him  the  necessary  orders  for  the  evacuation  of  the 
island  by  the  Possadnik  and  her  crew.  The  captain  of  that 
ship  assured  the  admiral  that  he  would  receive  these  orders 
with  delight,  as  he  was  heartily  sick  of  his  exile. 

Meantime  our  surveying  parties  had  not  been  idle.  It 
was  found  that  the  harbor,  or  sound,  in  which  we  were,  nearly 
divided  the  island  into  two;  a  narrow  strip  of  land,  not  half 
a  mile  wide,  alone  connecting  the  northern  with  the  southern 
half,  each  section  being  about  twenty  miles  long  and  from 
ten  to  fifteen  broad.  I  had  no  means  of  ascertaining  the 
amount  of  the  population  ;  but  as  the  island  is  very  fertile, 
and  is  well  peopled  in  parts,  it  probably  contains  from  thirty 
to  forty  thousand  inhabitants.  From  the  wooded  heights  of 
Tsusima  Sound,  the  Corea,  distant  about  forty  miles,  is  very 
plainly  visible,  and,  in  former  days,  the  inhabitants  of  Tsusi- 
ma kept  up  more  intercourse  with  that  country  than  did  any 


A   VISIT   TO   TSUSIMA,  185 

Other  part  of  Japan,  and  the  prince  maintained  a  garrison  of 
three  hundred  men  at  its  nearest  port.  He  enjoyed  a  mo- 
nopoly of  trade,  which  consisted  chiefly  of  tiger-skins,  rice, 
hides,  silver,  and  gold.  The  climate  in  summer  was  perfect, 
and  even  in  winter  it  is  extremely  mild.  The  larger  vegeta- 
tion consists  chiefly  of  evergreen  oak,  sycamores,  maples,  cy- 
presses, and  pines  of  different  varieties.  One  of  our  officers, 
who  had  been  to  Manchuria,  said  that  the  conifers  were 
of  the  type  common  in  that  country;  while  among  the /era 
naturcc  the  wild  cats  and  deer  differ  from  those  of  Japan. 
At  high  water  the  sea  covers  the  isthmus  which  connects  the 
two  islands,  and  stakes  are  put  across  it  to  prevent  the  pas- 
sage of  boats  at  low  tide.  The  highest  mountain  on  the 
island  attains  to  the  height  of  about  twenty-five  hundred 
feet. 

Here,  as  the  Russian  paper  observes,  there  is  no  fear  of 
frost  closing  the  harbor,  which  w^ould  form  one  of  the  finest 
naval  stations  in  the  world  ;  while  the  agricultural  and  other 
resources  of  the  island  itself  would  make  it  a  most  valuable 
acquisition  to  any  power  which  might  be  lucky  enough  to 
obtain  possession  of  it.  Fortunately  the  Japanese  are  fully 
alive  to  its  importance  ;  and  under  existing  treaties  it  could 
only  be  obtained  possession  of  by  an  act  of  war,  as  the  Jap- 
anese government  would  certainly  refuse  to  part  with  it  for 
any  pecuniary  consideration,  and  the  powers  which  have 
treaties  with  Japan  are  pledged  to  insure  its  integrity  as 
against  each  other.  From  the  cool  way  in  which  the  Rus- 
sian paper  mentions  the  possible  annexation  of  the  island, 
no  objections  on  this  score  seem  to  have  occurred  to  it.  "  It 
would  seem,  therefore,"  it  says,  "unavoidable  to  preserve 
Vladivostok  as  the  base  of  all  serious  operations  ;  but  to 
occupy  and  fortify  Tsusima  as  a  marine  station  well  armed 
and  provisioned."  By  being  thoroughly  forewarned  of  this 
intention,  the  powers  interested  may  possibly  make  it  "avoid- 
able ;"  and  it  would  certainly  be  a  gross  breach  of  faith  on 
their  part  towards  Japan  to  allow  the  harbor  to  be  occupied 


1 86  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

by  force.  The  extreme  importance  of  it  to  Russia  as  a  win- 
ter naval  station  is  indicated  by  tlie  remarks  of  the  Russian 
paper ;  while  there  is  no  power  more  interested  than  Eng- 
land in  preventing  Russia  from  having  a  port  in  the  Eastern 
seas  open  in  winter.  Our  undefended  colonies,  our  enormous 
commercial  interests,  would  render  resistance  to  such  an  act 
a  necessary  measure  of  self-preservation  in  the  case  of  any 
European  power;  but  it  is  doubly  so  with  Russia,  of  whose 
aggressive  tendencies,  unhindered  by  scruple  of  any  sort,  we 
have  recently  had  such  ample  testimony.  Every  nation  is 
entitled  to  consider  an  aggressive  act  of  another  nation,  even 
though  it  is  not  immediately  directed  against  its  own  terri- 
tory, a  justification  for  precautionary  measures  on  the  part 
of  the  power  threatened.  It  was  for  this  reason  that  the 
late  Sir  Harry  Parkes  so  persistently  urged  upon  our  govern- 
ment the  expediency  of  occupying  Port  Hamilton  ;  and  it  is 
to  be  hoped,  if  it  is  now  decided  to  evacuate  that  island  in 
favor  of  China,  it  will  be  done  under  conditions  which  will 
not  strategically  weaken  our  position  in  these  seas.  That 
the  annexation  of  Tsusima  is  as  much  part  of  the -programme 
of  the  Russian  government  as  the  annexations  of  Khiva, 
Merv,  and  Batoum  have  formerly  been,  there  is  not  the 
smallest  doubt.  Their  first  attempt  to  effect  a  quiet  and  un- 
obtrusive occupation  was,  fortunately,  frustrated  in  the  man- 
ner above  described.  Admiral  Hope  at  once  steamed  off  to 
Olga  Bay,  and  the  result  of  his  communication  with  the  Rus- 
sian admiral  was  an  order  for  the  immediate  evacuation  of 
Tsusima  by  i\\Q  Possadfiik. 

These  are  the  circumstances  under  which,  in  the  words  of 
the  Vladivostok,  "  the  Russian  flag  was  hoisted  but  subse- 
quently withdrawn  "  from  the  island  of  Tsusima,  and  I  trust 
that  the  hint  will  not  be  thrown  away  in  the  view  of  future 
contingencies. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

POLITICS   AND   ADVENTURE  IN  ALBANIA   AND    ITALY    IN    1 862. 

The  circumstances  under  which  I  returned  to  England 
from  Japan  and  Tsusima  in  the  autumn  of  1861,  and  the  im- 
paired state  of  my  health,  resulting  from  the  wounds  I  had 
received  during  the  attack  on  the  Legation,  induced  Lord 
Russell,  then  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs,  not  to  insist  upon 
my  immediate  return  to  the  East. 

I  was  spending  a  few  days  at  Vienna  in  the  early  part  of 
the  following  year,  when  the  Prince  of  Wales  arrived  on  his 
way  to  the  Holy  Land,  and  kindly  honored  me  with  an  in- 
vitation to  accompany  him  to  Corfu,  which  was  at  the  time 
the  objective  point  of  my  journey.  I  accordingly  proceeded 
with  the  party  to  Trieste,  where  we  embarked  on  board  the 
yacht  which  was  in  waiting  there  for  his  royal  highness,  and, 
after  visiting  Venice,  proceeded  to  Pola,  Ragusa,  Cattaro, 
Durazzo — where  we  had  a  wild-boar  hunt,  in  which  his  royal 
highness  was  successful — and  so  on  to  Corfu,  from  which 
place  I  took  steamer  to  Antivari — then  a  Turkish  town — in 
the  immediate  neighborhood  of  the  since  historic  Dulcigno : 
the  district  which  I  was  now  visiting  has  since  been  ceded  to 
Montenegro.  From  here  I  rode  to  Scutari,  the  capital  of 
Albania,  and  stayed  with  my  old  friend  Captain  Ricketts,  at 
that  time  our  consul  there.  I  had  formed  the  design  of  visit- 
ing the  Miridits,  a  Roman  Catholic  tribe  of  Albanian  moun- 
taineers, who  had  excited  my  interest,  both  from  a  political 
and  ethnographical  point  of  view ;  but  I  found  their  chief. 
Bib  Dodo  Pasha,  at  Scutari,  and  his  absence  from  his  moun- 
tain home,  where  I  should  have  been  his  guest,  deprived  the 


155  EPISODES    IN    A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

trip  of  advantages  I  should  otherwise  have  enjoyed.  More- 
over I  obtained  from  him  much  of  the  information  of  which 
I  was  in  search.  He  has  since  died  and  been  succeeded  by 
his  son  Prenk  Dodo  Pasha,  who,  if  I  mistake  not,  is  detained 
at  Constantinople  as  a  hostage  for  the  good  behavior  of  his 
tribe.  The  question  of  the  future  of  Montenegro,  Albania, 
and  Epirus,  with  their  divergent  races,  religions,  and  aspira- 
tions, in  which  I  was  then  interested,  is  too  large  and  com- 
plicated to  enter  upon  here.  It  is  destined  before  long  to 
force  itself  for  a  final  solution  upon  the  attention  of  Europe, 
and  it  suffices  here  to  say  that  if  that  solution  is  to  be  satis- 
factory, those  engaged  in  bringing  it  about  must  acquire  a 
more  accurate  knowledge  of  the  local  conditions  and  the 
rival  forces  at  work  than  was  possessed  at  the  period  of  my 
visit.  I  was  very  much  struck  with  the  popular  ignorance 
which  prevailed  in  this  country  in  regard  to  the  revolt  in 
Bosnia  and  Herzegovina,  which  finally  led  to  the  Russo- 
Turkish  war.  At  the  outbreak  of  that  movement,  the  press,  so 
far  as  I  remember  without  an  exception,  assumed  that  it  was 
a  revolt  of  Christians  against  Turks,  and  I  found  the  same 
impression  existed  even  among  members  of  the  cabinet — the 
fact  being  that  it  was  an  agrarian  rising  of  Slav  Christian 
peasants  against  Slav  Moslem  landlords,  very  much  analo- 
gous in  many  respects  to  our  own  landlord-and-tenant  ques- 
tion in  Ireland.  With  this  difference,  however,  that  the 
British  government  is  able  to  put  in  force  coercive  measures 
if  required,  and  is  far  more  responsible  for  the  maintenance 
of  law  and  order  in  Ireland  than  the  porte  was  in  the  case  of 
the  rebellious  populations  of  these  outlying  Slav  provinces. 
I  was  a  guest  for  a  day  or  two  in  Herzegovina  at  the  coun- 
try-house of  one  of  these  Slav  landlords.  He  was  a  rigorous 
Moslem,  but  he  could  not  speak  a  word  of  Turkish,  and  he 
was  as  hostile  to  the  Turkish  government  as  his  own  peas- 
antry were  to  him.  It  was  a  kind  of  triangular  duel,  in  fact, 
which,  since  the  transfer  of  the  provinces  to  Austria,  the  gov- 
ernment of  that  country  has  had  to  solve.    The  more  stringent 


ALBANIA  AND  ITALY  IN  1862.  189 

measures  they  found  it  necessary  to  adopt  have  had  the 
effect  of  driving  out  the  Moslem  proprietary  class,  many  of 
whom  have  taken  refuge  in  the  Turkish  dominions  ;  and  curi- 
ously enough,  two  years  ago,  I  found  myself  once  more  the 
guest  of  a  Herzegovine  Slav  Moslem,  who,  with  a  number 
of  his  compatriots,  had  established  himself  on  the  ruins  of 
Cffisarea  in  the  Holy  Land.  Had  they  been  among  Russians 
they  could  have  made  themselves  understood  in  their  native 
tongue.  Surrounded  by  Arabs,  they  were  strangers  in  a 
strange  country — their  only  common  tie  being  that  of  re- 
ligion. 

At  the  time  of  my  visit  to  Scutari,  fighting  was  in  progress 
on  the  Montenegrin  frontier  between  the  Turks  and  the 
Montenegrins.  I  made  a  trip  to  the  Turkish  outpost,  then 
on  the  island  of  Lessandria  at  the  northern  end  of  the  Lake 
of  Scutari,  which  has  since  been  ceded  to  Montenegro.  The 
steamer  in  which  I  took  passage  was  conveying  troops  to 
this  point,  and  the  exciting  incident  consisted  in  our  having 
to  run  the  gantlet  of  a  narrow  straight,  on  the  rocky  sides 
of  which  Montenegrin  sharpshooters  concealed  themselves, 
freely  playing  with  their  rifles  on  the  decks  of  passing  steam- 
ers. However,  except  for  the  captain  and  the  man  at  the 
wheel,  there  was  not  much  danger,  as  everybody  either  went 
below,  or  hid  behind  the  bulwarks,  during  the  few  moments 
it  took  us  to  rush  by  at  full  speed. 

From  Scutari  I  took  a  boat  and  sailed  down  the  Bojanos 
river  back  to  the  Bay  of  Antivari,  thence  returned  to  Corfu, 
spending  some  days  there  with  Sir  Henry  Storks,  then  Lord 
High  Commissioner.     Thence  I  crossed  over  to  Ancona. 

The  cordial  sympathy  which  the  British  public  had  mani- 
fested for  the  people  of  Italy  in  their  struggle  for  unity  and 
independence  had  rendered  England  very  popular  at  this 
time,  and  the  name  of  Palmerston  was  a  talisman  in  Europe. 
I  had  one  or  two  curious  evidences  of  the  extremes  of  dislike 
and  of  affection  in  which  this  venerable  statesman  was  held. 
At  Trieste  I  met  an  Austrian  officer  who  charged  him  with 


190  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE    OF   ADVENTURE. 

having  imported  guns  under  his  own  name  into  Italy  during 
the  Lombardy  campaign.  On  my  scouting  this  notion  as 
absurd,  my  informant  said  that  he  had  a  gun  in  his  posses- 
sion which  had  been  taken  from  the  Garibaldians,  and  which 
would  prove  the  truth  of  his  assertion.  This  puzzled  me  so 
much  that  I  requested  to  be  allowed  to  see  it,  and  accom- 
panied him  to  his  house  to  see  a  gun  upon  which  "  Palmer 
&  Son  "  was  engraved  upon  the  barrel  as  its  makers.  I  was 
anxious  to  drive  from  Ancona  through  the  Abruzzi  to  Naples, 
with  a  view  of  judging  for  myself  of  Italian  rule  in  the  prov- 
inces which  Victor  Emmanuel  had  so  recently  acquired  from 
the  King  of  Naples.  The  difficulty  about  the  journey  was 
the  extreme  insecurity  of  the  roads.  Upon  my  mentioning 
this  to  the  general  commanding  the  troops  at  Ancona,  he 
most  kindly  offered  to  see  that  an  escort  was  furnished  to 
me  through  the  only  district  which  he  said  was  in  the  least 
dangerous.  I  travelled  by  post,  taking  the  coast  road  as  far 
as  Pescara,  and  then  turning  off  to  Chieti,  a  most  picturesque 
town  situated  on  a  high  hill-top,  where  I  stayed  two  days,  en- 
joying the  hospitality  of  the  officer  in  command  of  the  troops, 
to  whom  I  carried  a  letter  of  introduction  from  Ancona, 
and  who  was  to  provide  the  escort.  As  I  was  anxious  to 
travel  rapidly  and  to  follow  my  own  devices,  I  took  four 
horses,  and  had   no  travelling  companion   but  my  servant 

B ,  whom  I  have  already  mentioned  in  my  account  of 

the  attack  on  the  Legation  in  Japan.  As  he  was  as  intel- 
ligent as  he  was  faithful,  I  often  on  these  occasions  took 
him  inside  with  me  ;  and  it  was  thus  that  one  fine  after- 
noon we  approached  the  town  of  Salmona,  our  escort  jing- 
ling merrily  behind,  and  the  four  horses  clattering  over 
the  smooth,  hard  road  in  most  exhilarating  style.  As  we 
neared  the  town  I  perceived  that  some  grand  fete  was  in 
progress.  Flags  were  flying  from  ih^  windows,  which  were 
crowded  with  spectators,  while  the  streets  were  lined  with 
soldiers,  and  the  distant  strains  of  a  military  band  were  au- 
dible. 


ALBANIA    AND    ITALY    IN    1862.  I9I 

"We  are  in  luck,"  I  said  to  B ;  "there  is  evidently 

some  festival  in  progress." 

As  we  drove  along  the  street  people  cheered,  and  the 
women  waved  handkerchiefs ;  but  I  was  unable  to  perceive 
any-object  calculated  to  excite  their  enthusiasm.  When  we 
reached  a  square  about  the  centre  of  the  town  the  band 
struck  up  "God  Save  the  Queen,"  the  troops  presented  arms, 
the  carriage  was  suddenly  stopped,  and  half  a  dozen  gentle- 
men in  full  evening  costume,  with  white  ties  and  white  kid 
gloves,  approached  hat  in  hand,  with  profound  salutations. 
Their  leader,  who  I  afterwards  discovered  was  the  principal 
civil  functionary,  with  many  polite  speeches  requested  me  to 
descend  from  the  carriage,  and  partake  of  a  banquet  which 
had  been  provided  for  me.  It  now  appeared  that  all  these 
military  demonstrations  were  in  my  honor,  and  it  became 
evident  to  me  that  I  was  mistaken  for  somebody  else — an 
explanation  which,  in  declining  the  proffered  honor,  I  ven- 
tured to  suggest  to  the  mayor.  He  received  it  with  a  polite 
smile. 

"We  are  all  aware,"  he  said,  "  that  you  desire  to  travel  in- 
cognito, but  we  have  been  unable  to  regard  this  wish.  We 
could  not  allow  Lord  Palmerston's  nephew  to  pass  through 
our  town  without  making  some  demonstration  of  respect, 
in  token  of  the  great  gratitude  we  feel  to  your  illustrious 
relative." 

"  But,"  I  persisted,  "  I  have  not  the  honor  of  being  related 
in  the  most  distant  way  to  the  great  statesman." 

"No  doubt;  we  quite  understand  that  under  the  circum- 
stances it  would  not  be  possible  for  you  to  admit  the  rela- 
tionship. I  will  not  therefore  again  allude  to  it,  but  simply 
request  you  to  honor  the  repast  we  have  prepared  for  you 
with  your  presence,  and  receive  an  address,  which  will  ac- 
company one  which  we  will  beg  you  to  transmit  to  Lord 
Palmerston." 

During  the  time  this  colloquy  was  taking  place,  the  mayor 
was  standing  bareheaded  in  the  square,  where  a  great  crowd 


194  EPISODES    IN    A    LIFE    OF   ADVENTURE. 

transacted  by  the  vice-consul  himself.     When  do  you  expect 
him  back?" 

"  He  may  be  a  week,  he  may  be  more  ;  it  is  impossible  to 
say.  I  am  sure,  signor,  I  could  transact  your  business  if  you 
would  only  confide  it  to  me." 

"  I  am  equally  sure,  signora,  that  you  could  not ;"  and  I 
explained  to  her  its  nature.  "  From  which  you  will  see  that 
it  is  imperative  that  I  should  see  your  husband.  Perhaps 
you  can  telegraph  for  him." 

"  Impossible,  signor !"  and  with  that  she  burst  into  a  vio- 
lent fit  of  weeping.  "  It  is  no  use  disguising  the  truth  from 
you  any  longer.  My  husband  deserted  me  more  than  a  year 
ago,  and  I  have  no  idea  where  he  is." 

"And  have  you  been  transacting  the  business  of  the  con- 
sulate ever  since  ?"  I  asked. 

"  Si,  signor.  There  is  very  little  to  transact ;  but  it  is  al- 
most all  I  have  to  live  upon.  Have  mercy  upon  me,  and  do 
not  let  it  be  known  to  the  English  government.  It  was  I 
who  used  to  do  the  consular  business  even  when  my  husband 
was  here.  He  was  idle  and  worthless,  and  used  to  do  many 
dishonest  things,  which  I  never  do." 

"I  have  no  doubt,"  I  replied,  "that  you  are  a  far  more 
capable  and  estimable  person  than  your  husband — indeed 
his  present  conduct  proves  his  worthlessness  ;  but  unfortu- 
nately there  is  still  a  prejudice  in  the  world  in  favor  of  offi- 
cial business  being  conducted  by  men.  It  is  one  which  we 
shall  no  doubt  get  over  in  time ;  until  then,  I  think  it  is  the 
duty  of  any  Englishman  who  finds  that  the  British  vice-con- 
sul has  deserted  his  post  and  left  his  wife  in  charge,  to  let 
his  government  know  it,  however  capable,  honest,  and,  allow 
me  to  add"— and  I  made  a  polite  bow — "beautiful  that  wife 
may  be." 

I  threw  in  the  last  words  to  gild  the  pill,  but  I  evidently 
did  not  succeed,  for  I  left  her  weeping  bitterly ;  and  I  am 
afraid  she  did  not  remain  long  after  this  British  vice-consul 
at  Manfredonia. 


ALBANIA   AND    ITALY    IN    1862. 


195 


I  had  scarcely  taken  ten  steps  from  the  door  of  the  vice- 
consulate,  and  was  still  in  a  somewhat  softened  and  reflective 
mood,  when  I  was  accosted  by  another  little  girl,  who  thrust 
a  folded  but  crumpled  piece  of  paper  into  my  hand,  on  which 
was  the  superscription  "  to  English  gentleman."  Its  con- 
tents were  as  follows  : 

"  Miss  Thimbleby  requests  the  pleasure  of  English  gentle- 
man's company  to  tea  to-night  at  nine  o'clock.  Old  English 
style." 

"  Follow  me,"  I  said  to  the  little  girl, ''  and  I  will  give  you 
the  answer."  "  Who  in  the  world  can  Miss  Thimbleby  be  ?" 
I  ruminated.  "What  a  name  for  an  old  maid  in  a  novel! 
It  is  morally  impossible  with  such  a  name  that  she  can  be  a 
young  one."  At  any  rate,  it  was  evident  that  the  invitation 
was  one  which  should  be  promptly  accepted.  So  I  replied — 
"The  English  gentleman  has  much  pleasure  in  accepting 
Miss  Thimbleby's  kind  invitation  to  tea  to-night.  Old  Eng- 
lish style." 

I  gave  the  girl  the  note  and  accompanied  her  with  it  to 
Miss  Thimbleby's  house,  in  order  that  I  might  know  my  way 
there  later,  and  also  because  I  thought  it  might  give  me 
some  clew  to  the  character  of  its  occupant.  It  was  a  tumble- 
down old  pahizzo,  with  many  evidences  of  departed  grandeur, 
having  probably  two  or  three  centuries  ago  been  the  town 
mansion  of  some  large  landed  proprietor  in  the  neighborhood. 
Altogether  its  aspect  rather  gave  me  a  pleasant  idea  of  Miss 
Thimbleby,  as  being  in  all  probability  an  antiquated,  respect- 
able old  person  herself,  in  keeping  with  her  abode.  I  re- 
frained from  making  any  inquiries  about  her  at  the  hotel, 
as  it  was  more  agreeable  to  keep  the  edge  of  my  curiosity 
whetted  by  conjecture  than  satisfied  by  information;  and  at 
the  appointed  hour  I  repaired  to  tea  in  "  old  English  style." 
On  entering  the  house  I  found  myself  at  the  bottom  of  a 
very  wide,  handsomely  carved  oak  staircase,  at  the  top  of 
which  I  could  discern,  by  the  dim  lamp  which  lighted  it,  the 
figure  of  a  little  old  woman  like  a  witch,  bobbing  and  courtesy- 


192  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

was  collected,  and  I  was  sitting  bareheaded  in  the  carriage, 
feeling  it  incumbent  upon  me,  when  an  unusually  loud  viva 
was  shouted,  to  acknowledge  it  with  a  polite  bow.  The  situ- 
ation was  too  ridiculous  to  be  prolonged ;  there  was  no  al- 
ternative but  to  accept  the  inevitable.     I  promoted  B on 

the  spot  to  the  rank  of  "il  Signor  Segretario,"  in  which  ca- 
pacity he  was  taken  charge  of  by  a  group  of  polite  men  in 
swallow-tailed  coats,  to  his  intense  amazement,  for  I  had  no 
time  to  explain  the  situation  to  him,  and  we  passed  through 
a  lane  of  spectators  to  a  public  building,  in  a  long  hall  of 
which  a  table  was  spread  for  about  fifty  guests.  It  was  quite 
a  sumptuous  repast,  with  champagne  and  all  the  delicacies 
of  the  season.  There  was  a  gallery  in  which  were  ensconced 
the  beauty  and  fashion  of  the  place  at  one  end,  and  the  band 
came  in  and  played  at  the  other.  The  mayor  seated  me  by 
his  side  at  the  top  of  the  table,  while  the  Signor  Segretario, 
still  in  a  state  of  profound  bewilderment  as  to  what  was  hap- 
pening to  him,  sat  at  the  other.  When  the  feasting  was  over 
the  speeches  began,  and  I  was  obliged,  in  my  quality  of  Lord 
Palmerston's  nephew,  to  reply,  in  execrable  Italian,  to  the 
compliments  which  were  lavished  upon  the  policy  of  England 
in  general,  and  of  that  statesman  in  particular,  and  to  receive 
two  addresses,  one  to  his  lordship  and  the  other  to  myself, 
with  a  promise  that  I  would  forward  the  former  to  its  des- 
tination, which  I  did  at  the  earliest  opportunity,  with  a  full 
account  of  the  circumstances  under  which  I  had  received  it, 
to  Lord  Palmerston's  great  amusement. 

Snugly  ensconced  in  the  bay,  beneath  what  is  known  as  the 
spur  of  Italy,  on  the  shores  of  the  Adriatic,  lies  the  little  sea- 
port town  of  Manfredonia.  It  is  a  queer  little  out-of-the-way 
place,  removed  from  the  line  of  all  travel,  and  very  primitive 
in  its  manners  and  customs — at  least  it  was  then.  I  do  not 
know  how  far  railways  and  the  general  march  of  events  may 
have  affected  it  since.  Notwithstanding  its  insignificance, 
we  had  nevertheless  a  British  vice-consul  there,  to  attend  to 
the  wants  of  the  stray  colliers  or  English  merchant-ships 


ALBANIA  AND  ITALY  IN  1862.  I93 

that  rarely  visit  the  port.  These  vice-consuls  in  the  smaller 
ports  of  the  Mediterranean  are  usually  natives  of  the  place, 
and  at  that  time  their  remuneration  consisted  chiefly  of  fees, 
and  other  little  perquisites,  not  always  strictly  legitimate, 
which  they  derived  from  their  office.  It  so  happened  that  I 
had  an  affair  of  some  importance  to  transact  with  the  vice- 
consul  of  Manfredonia,  and  I  rode  over  one  day  from  Fog- 
gia,  where  I  had  been  spending  a  week,  to  see  him.  The 
whole  of  the  Neapolitan  states  were  infested  at  this  time 
with  bands  of  banditti,  calling  themselves  Royalist  troops, 
and,  under  cover  of  a  political  character  which  they  did  not 
possess,  committing  the  most  wholesale  depredations.  It 
was  not  considered,  under  these  circumstances,  a  very  safe 
proceeding  to  make  the  journey  without  an  escort ;  but  I 
achieved  it  without  mishap,  and  putting  up  at  a  small  locanda 
— the  only  one  of  which  the  town  could  boast — went  in 
search  of  the  vice-consul.  A  daub  on  a  shield,  bearing  a 
faint  resemblance  to  the  lion  and  the  unicorn,  indicated  his 
residence,  and  on  knocking  at  the  door  it  was  opened  by  a 
dishevelled  little  girl. 

"  Is  the  English  consul  at  home  ?"  I  inquired. 

"  .5/,  signor;^'  and  she  tripped  before  me  up-stairs,  and, 
opening  a  door,  ushered  me  into  a  room  in  which  was  a  very 
pretty  woman  in  bed.  I  started  back  at  the  intrusion  of 
which  I  had  been  guilty. 

"  I  told  you  I  wanted  to  see  the  consul,"  I  said,  sharply, 
to  the  little  girl. 

'■'■  Entraie,  enirate,  signer  J"  exclaimed  a  mellifluous  voice 
from  the  bedclothes.  "  The  girl  made  a  mistake.  The  con- 
sul is  out,  and  will  not  be  back  to-day ;  but  I  am  his  wife, 
and  he  has  left  his  seal  with  me.  If  you  are  the  captain  of 
a  ship,  and  wish  anything  done,  I  can  do  it  for  you.  See  !" 
and  she  stretched  out  her  hand,  and  lifted  a  seal  from  a  little 
table  by  the  bedside. 

"  I  am  sorry,  signora,"  I  said  ;  "  but  I  am  not  the  captain 
of  a  ship,  and  my  business  is  of  a  nature  which  can  only  be 
13 


196  EPISODES    IN    A   LIFE   OF    ADVENTURE. 

ing  all  the  time  I  was  making  the  ascent.  She  shook  hands 
with  me  with  the  affectionate  cordiality  of  an  old  acquaint- 
ance, trembling  either  with  excitement  or  with  old  age  — for 
she  was  very,  very  old,  well  on  in  the  nineties,  she  afterwards 
told  me,  but  I  forget  her  exact  age.  She  had  forgotten  much 
of  her  English,  having  been  in  the  country  ever  since  the 
year  1804,  when  she  had  accompanied  her  brother,  who  was 
appointed  English  consul  at  Manfredonia  in  that  year,  to 
Italy,  And  here  she  had  lived  ever  since.  Her  brother 
and  his  wife  had  died  long  ago,  but  she  was  .in  the  receipt  of 
a  small  pension  from  the  English  government,  which  sufficed 
for  her  subsistence,  and  she  was  taken  care  of  by  sundry 
nephews  and  nieces,  and  by  the  connections  of  her  sister- 
in-law,  who  had  been  a  native  of  the  place.  Her  brother 
had  been  connected  with  the  Duke  of  York's  expedition  in 
some  capacity,  and  her  sister  was  the  celebrated  Mrs.  Jordan, 
the  mistress  of  King  William  IV.  Manfredonia  was  an  odd 
place  to  come  to  to  gather  the  moss  of  British  history,  but  I 
really  felt  as  if  I  had  made  a  discovery,  when  I  learned  from 
this  most  venerable  and  highly  respectable  old  lady  that 
Mrs.  Jordan  the  actress's  maiden  name  was  Thimbleby. 
She  showed  me  a  letter  from  the  Duke  of  York  to  her 
brother,  and  a  paper  with  Nelson's  signature,  and  many  an- 
cient curiosities  which  she  had  hoarded  up.  Tea  in  "old 
English  style  "  seemed  to  consist  of  our  partaking  of  that 
beverage  ictc-a-tete — for,  except  the  little  servant-girl,  I  did 
not  see  a  soul  in  the  deserted  old  palace.  In  fact,  the  sur- 
roundings were  so  much  in  keeping  with  this  strange  old 
lady  and  her  reminiscences,  that  I  had  a  general  impres- 
sion of  becoming  fossilized.  She  insisted  on  talking  Eng- 
lish, profusely  interlarded  with  Italian,  and  was  extremely 
garrulous,  but  her  sense  of  time  had  become  so  confused 
that  she  seemed  in  doubt  in  what  century  we  were  living. 
Thus  she  asked  me  at  what  hotel  I  was  staying.  I  men- 
tioned the  name  of  the  only  tolerably  decent  one  in  the 
place. 


ALBANIA  AND  ITALY  IN  1862.  I97 

"  Ah,"  she  said,  "  that  is  where  the  English  always  go 
when  they  come  to  Manfredonia." 

"Wh}^,"  I  replied,  with  some  surprise,  "I  did  not  know 
that  English  travellers  often  visited  Manfredonia." 

"Oh,  yes,"  she  said,  "  there  was  an  English  family  staying 
there  in  1829." 

The  ignorance  of  the  benighted  inhabitants  of  these  small 
Neapolitan  towns  was  something  incredible.  I  spent  several 
days  as  the  guest  of  the  mayors  of  the  towns  of  Ascoli  and 
Candela,  situated  in  the  Capitanata,  which  at  that  time  was 
a  hotbed  of  brigandage,  and  where,  in  company  with  a  regi- 
ment of  Piedmontese  cavalry,  with  which  I  was  campaigning, 
I  was  quartered,  with  some  of  the  officers,  upon  the  inhabi- 
tants. I  found  the  notions  of  the  principal  functionaries  crude 
in  the  extreme  upon  all  matters  affecting  European  politics. 
This  arose  from  the  fact  that  during  the  reign  of  the  late 
King  of  Naples  they  were  not  allowed  to  take  in  any  news- 
papers. The  mayor  of  one  of  these  towns  was  ignorant  that 
England  was  an  island,  and  I  found  it  difficult  to  give  him 
any  idea  of  the  British  Constitution.  Yet  this  was  a  man 
who  kept  his  carriage-and-pair,  in  which  his  wife  used  to 
drive  about  in  silks  and  satins.  It  is  true  that  her  costume 
in  the  morning  was  of  the  most  scanty  and  primitive  descrip- 
tion. None  of  the  ladies  thought  of  really  dressing  for  the 
day  until  after  the  midday  siesta,  when  they  all  regularly 
turned  into  bed,  as  if  for  the  night,  for  a  couple  of  hours. 
This  was  rendered  necessary  by  the  shortness  of  their  nights, 
for  we  generally  supped  heavily  about  eleven,  went  to  bed 
about  one  in  the  morning,  and  got  up  a  little  after  daylight. 

I  was  interested  in  inspecting  a  prison  full  of  captured 
banditti.  Here  I  saw  the  beautiful  wife  of  a  notorious  chief 
of  one  of  the  bands,  who  had  been  captured,  dressed  in  man's 
clothes,  and  using  her  pistol  with  such  effect  that  she  severely 
wounded  a  soldier  before  she  was  taken  prisoner.  Her  hus- 
band, who  escaped  at  the  time,  was  afterwards  captured  ;  but 
there  were  several  chiefs  of  minor  distinction — picturesque, 


198  EPISODES    IN    A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

bronzed,  hardened-looking  ruffians.  The  one  with  the  most 
villainous  expression,  however,  was  the  priest  of  one  of  the 
bands,  who,  still  dressed  in  his  ragged  clerical  costume,  as- 
sumed an  air  of  sanctimonious  resignation,  and  who,  I  was 
assured,  had  presided  over  the  roasting  alive  of  a  man  who 
had  been  robbed,  and  other  atrocities — going  through  the* 
ceremony  of  shriving  the  victims  before  their  execution,  and 
granting  absolution  to  the  murderers,  in  consideration  of 
which  his  share  of  the  spoil  was  always  considerable.  Upon 
two  occasions  I  was  present  at  an  exciting  chase  after  bands 
of  banditti,  one  of  which  numbered  over  two  hundred  strong. 
As  the  detachment  I  was  with  was  much  inferior  in  force, 
they  seemed  inclined  to  show  fight.  However,  when  we 
charged  they  thought  better  of  it,  and  scattering  in  all  direc- 
tions, gave  us  a  run  across  country  which  was  as  exciting  as 
any  fox-hunt,  but  which  only  resulted  in  the  capture  of  half  a 
dozen  of  their  number. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that,  owing  to  the  insecurity  of  the 
countr}',  Calabria,  with  its  enchanting  scenery,  is  a  sealed 
book  to  the  tourist.  The  habit  of  brigandage  is  so  strong  in 
the  people  that  nearly  five-and-twenty  years  of  the  more  en- 
lightened rule  of  the  Italian  government  has  been  unable  to 
eradicate  it.  It  is  engrained  in  the  habits  of  the  peasantry, 
nearly  every  one  of  whom,  in  some  parts  of  the  province, 
goes  out  with  a  band  by  way  of  a  holiday  for  some  weeks  in 
the  year.  It  was  not  a  country  adapted  for  the  operations 
of  cavalry,  so  I  could  only  get  glimpses  of  the  scenery  as  we 
followed  the  enemy  occasionally  to  the  foot  of  the  hills — for 
when  hard  pressed  they  invariably  took  to  the  mountains ; 
but  I  saw  enough  to  make  my  mouth  water,  and  create  an 
intense  desire  to  explore  its  romantic  recesses.  Traversing 
the  plain  of  Cannae,  with  its  battle-field,  I  crossed  the  Rubi- 
con, and  so  made  my  way  to  Bari,  and  from  thence  by  a  very 
pretty  road  to  Tarento,  and  so  along  the  coast  to  Catrone, 
both  highly  picturesque  places,  and  well  worthy  a  visit. 
From  thence  I  crossed  over  to  Sicily,  and  posted  from  Ca- 


ALBANIA    AND    ITALY    IN     1862.  199 

tania  through  the  centre  of  the  island,  by  way  of  Caltanizetta 
to  Palermo,  arriving  there  without  mishap  from  brigands,  ap- 
parently to  the  surprise  of  the  inhabitants,  who  had  not  sup- 
posed that  the  journey  was  one  which  it  was  possible  to  make 
in  safety.     From  Palermo  I  returned  to  Naples. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

CRACOW    DURING   THE   POLISH    INSURRECTION    OF    1863. 

On  my  return  from  Italy  it  became  necessary  for  me  to 
decide  vvhetlier  I  should  return  to  my  post  in  Japan  as 
charge  d'affaires  or  resign  the  diplomatic  service.  It  was 
with  great  regret  that  I  found  myself  compelled  by  family 
considerations  to  adopt  the  latter  alternative,  and  abandon 
a  career  which  had  at  that  time  peculiar  attractions  for 
me,  and  in  which,  considering  my  age,  I  had  made  rapid 
progress. 

In  January,  1863,  the  Polish  insurrection  broke  out,  and  as 
I  had  by  this  time  acquired  a  habit  of  fishing  in  troubled 
waters,  I  determined  to  go  and  see  it. 

The  proximity  of  the  camp  of  Langiewicz  to  the  Galician 
frontier  induced  me  to  hurry  through  Vienna  in  the  hope  of 
reaching  Cracow  in  time  to  see  the  largest  insurgent  army 
which  had  as  yet  taken  the  field.  The  city  had  for  some 
time  past  been  the  centre  from  which  military  operations 
were  more  especially  directed,  just  as  Warsaw  had  been, 
since  the  commencement  of  the  movement,  the  seat  of  politi- 
cal and  administrative  action.  It  was,  consequently,  a  point 
of  attraction  for  unquiet  spirits  from  all  parts  of  Europe. 
Polish  refugees,  military  and  political  adventurers,  enthusi- 
astic sympathizers,  or  reckless  condottieri^  were  constantly 
passing  along  the  line  from  Vienna  to  Cracow;  and  although 
my  fellow-passengers  were  not  numerous,  I  regarded  them 
with  a  feeling  of  curiosity  and  interest  which  railway  pas- 
sengers in  these  prosaic  days  seldom  think  of  according  to 
each  other.     As,  after  a  long,  cold  night  journey,  the  train 


CRACOW    DURING   THE    INSURRECTION   OF    1863.         201 

moved  slowly  into  the  Cracow  station,  the  groups  collected 
on  the  platform  seemed  to  share  these  sentiments  with  refer- 
ence to  myself  as  well  as  to  my  fellow-travellers.  They  peered 
curiously  into  every  carriage,  and  had  plenty  of  time  to  form 
their  conjectures,  as  no  one  was  allowed  to  leave  the  train 
until  his  passport  had  been  examined ;  but  it  is  only  the  in- 
nocent and  unoffending  traveller  with  a  genuine  passport 
who  ever  has  it  out  of  order  —  a  false  passport  is  always  a 
faultless  document,  and  can  be  made  to  do  duty  in  a  variety 
of  ways  not  necessary  here  to  particularize.  Far  be  it  from 
me  to  insinuate  that  any  of  my  respectable  companions  were 
thus  provided,  or  betrayed  to  the  inquiring  gaze  of  a  good 
many  officials  the  slightest  consciousness  of  having  their 
heads  in  the  lion's  mouth.  It  is  only  when  you  show  signs 
of  alarm  that  the  animal  is  likely  to  close  his  jaws  ;  but  there 
is  a  certain  air  of  innocent  affrontery,  which  may  be  acquired 
by  a  little  practice,  which  disarms  suspicion.  I  thought 
the  people  who  came  to  see  the  train  arrive  seemed  rather 
disappointed  when  we  all  passed  safely  through  the  ordeal, 
and  drove  contentedly  away  in  the  vain  hope  of  finding  a 
lodging.  The  hotels  of  Cracow  are  not  of  any  remarkable 
excellence,  even  when  they  are  half  full ;  but  when  they  are 
crowded  to  overflowing  they  are  insupportable.  Such  was 
the  condition  in  which  I  found  them  ;  and  I  was  only  res- 
cued at  last  from  a  damp  cellar,  which  I  considered  myself 
fortunate  in  obtaining,  through  the  hospitality  of  my  friend, 
the  late  Count  Adam  Potocki. 

The  first  news  I  heard  was  not  encouraging  to  the  sight- 
seer. The  army  of  Langiewicz  had  been  destroyed  the  day 
before,  and  the  dictator  himself  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of 
the  Austrians.  I  thought,  as  I  walked  along  the  streets,  that 
I  saw  the  painful  news  written  in  the  face  of  every  soul  I  met. 
The  sombre  aspect  of  the  population,  clad  in  the  deepest 
mourning,  the  haggard,  careworn  countenances  of  the  men, 
the  despondent  look  of  the  women,  with  eyes  too  often  swollen 
from  weeping,  could  not  fail  to  produce  a  profound  impres- 
ts* 


202  EPISODES    IN    A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

sion  upon  the  most  careless  observer.  At  the  first  moment 
the  shock  was  terrible.  What  will  the  powers  think?  was 
the  first  question  put  to  the  foreigner,  for  every  one  felt  that 
the  disaster  was  in  no  way  serious  to  the  national  cause,  ex- 
cept in  so  far  as  it  affected  public  opinion  abroad  ;  but  inas- 
much as  foreign  intervention  was  looked  upon  as  essential  to 
the  ultimate  success  of  the  insurrection,  men's  eyes  were  ever 
more  turned  upon  the  state  of  feeling  without,  than  upon  the 
incidents  which  marked  the  struggle  within,  and  they  feared, 
with  reason,  that  the  impression  might  gain  ground  which  it 
would  be  difficult  afterwards  to  destroy — that  the  capture  of 
Langiewicz  would  be  a  death-blow  to  the  movement.  Such, 
indeed,  was  the  tone  of  the  public,  press  abroad  when  the  ca- 
tastrophe became  known.  In  order  that  we  may  understand 
why  the  downfall  of  the  dictator  was  utterly  without  signifi- 
cance at  home,  it  will  be  necessary  to  trace  shortly  the  his- 
tory of  the  movement,  and  the  circumstances  from  which  it 
principally  derived  its  force. 

I  made  a  careful  study  of  this  at  the  time,  which  I  record- 
ed in  the  pages  of  Blackwood's  Alagazine.  Suffice  it  here 
to  say,  that  for  some  years  previously  the  leading  members 
of  the  Polish  aristocracy  had  been  earnestly  engaged  in 
considering  how  they  might  best  advance  the  cause  of  the 
national  independence  without  exciting  the  suspicions  of  the 
Russian  government,  and  for  this  purpose  they  had  devised 
a  species  of  moral  crusade,  the  leader  of  which  was  Count 
Andrew  Zamoyski,  and  the  engine  used  the  celebrated  Agri- 
cultural Society.  The  ostensible  scope  of  this  organization 
was  to  develop  the  national  resources  of  the  country  ;  but  the 
questions  which  came  under  consideration  naturally  involved 
the  discussion  of  social  and  administrative  problems,  the  so- 
lution of  which  directly  affected  the  civil  action  of  the  gov- 
ernment of  St.  Petersburg.  With  branch  societies  in  every 
province,  its  power  and  influence  soon  became  widely  felt, 
and  the  moderate  party,  as  they  called  themselves,  formed 
the  most  sanguine  anticipations  of  the  effect  which  a  pres- 


CRACOW    DURING    THE    INSURRECTION    OF    1863.        203 

sure  thus  legally  exercised  might  have  upon  the  central  gov- 
ernment. 

Their  hopes  were  dashed  to  the  ground  by  the  appearance 
of  a  new  and  important  element,  which  threatened  seriously 
to  disturb  the  political  and  social  aspect  of  affairs.  Thirty 
years  had  now  elapsed  since  the  last  Polish  revolution,  and 
the  interval  had  worked  a  great  change  upon  the  face  of 
Europe.  To  the  superficial  observer  that  change  is  purely 
mechanical ;  to  those  who  connect  cause  with  effect  it  is  a 
great  moral  revolution.  As  the  art  of  printing  changed  the 
current  of  men's  ideas,  and  gave  a  stimulus  to  thought  which 
produced  the  greatest  theological  convulsion  of  the  age ;  so 
railways  and  telegraphs  are  working  out  the  political  prob- 
lems of  the  day,  and  will  mark  an  epoch  in  the  moral  history 
of  mankind.  It  is  impossible  to  estimate  the  influence  which 
facility  of  transport  must  exercise  upon  those  who,  all  their 
lives  buried  in  the  recesses  of  a  remote  province  in  some 
half-civilized  country,  are  thus  enabled  in  a  few  days  to  come 
into  contact  with  the  most  advanced  phase  of  existing  civili- 
zation. It  is  diffcult  to  conceive  the  effect  of  the  instantane- 
ous interchange  of  enlightened  and  barbarous  ideas,  and  to 
follow  the  varied  channels  which  are  thus  opened  to  the 
spread  of  civilization,  forcing  itself,  like  a  rising  flood,  slowly 
but  surely  along  wires  and  rails.  As  men's  minds  are  dif- 
ferently constituted,  it  is  a  necessary  incident  to  the  progress 
of  thought  that  it  should  often  receive  an  undue  impulse  in 
an  opposite  sense  from  that  in  which  it  has  been  cribbed, 
cabined,  and  confined,  and,  passing  the  bounds  of  modera- 
tion, find  an  exaggerated  expression  in  ill-regulated  and  en- 
thusiastic natures.  It  is  also  natural  that  designing  men 
should  take  advantage  of  this  tendency  to  convert  it  to  their 
own  purposes,  and  that  they  should  endeavor,  by  dint  of 
method  and  organization,  to  consolidate  it  into  a  power 
available  for  carrying  out  either  their  own  selfish  ends,  or 
giving  effect  to  their  political  theories.  Hence  there  had 
been  called  into  existence  in  almost  every  country  in  Europe 


204  EPISODES    IN    A    LIFE    OF   ADVENTURE. 

a  large  class  of  society,  whose  representative  men  compose 
what  is  called  "the  party  of  action,"  and  who  had  gradually 
acquired  such  power  and  influence  upon  the  Continent  that 
the  most  successful  monarch  of  the  time  perceived  from  the 
outset  of  his  career  the  necessity  of  conciliating  them  by  a 
certain  qualified  profession  of  their  political  opinions,  and  by 
a  very  large  connivance  in  their  secret  schemes.  The  party 
of  action  of  twenty  years  ago  have  since  been  superseded  by 
a  far  more  advanced  body  of  theorists — they  can  scarcely  be 
called  politicians — recruited  from  a  much  lower  couche  sociale ; 
but  in  those  days  they  belonged  mainly  to  the  middle  class, 
or,  as  in  Poland,  where  the  middle  class  properly  so  called 
does  not  exist,  to  that  grade  of  society  which  corresponds  to 
it  in  other  countries  —  those  persons,  in  fact,  whether  un- 
titled nobility  or  not,  who  have  no  large  vested  interests 
in  the  country,  but  who  are  possessed  of  intelligence  and 
education. 

The  growth  of  the  urban  population,  and  the  diffusion 
of  knowledge,  with  the  increased  facilities  of  its  transmis- 
sion by  railway  and  telegraph,  had  widely  extended  this 
class  in  Poland  of  late  years  ;  and  the  party  of  action  saw 
that  a  new  field  was  open  to  its  enterprise,  and  commenced 
some  time  before  its  political  cultivation.  They  had  con- 
siderably improved  their  organization  since  their  first  effort 
in  1848  to  carry  out  their  European  policy,  and  have  since 
then  incessantly  and  indefatigably  labored  to  prepare  the 
nations  for  a  more  successful  and  unanimous  attempt.  It 
would  be  difficult  for  one  not  initiated  to  say  in  what  coun- 
tries their  committees  did  not  exist,  or  into  what  circles  their 
agents  had  not  penetrated.  They  were  the  betes  noiresoi\\\Q 
upper  classes  abroad,  just  as  Jesuitism  is  the  bugbear  of  Prot- 
estantism in  England,  and  with  far  greater  reason.  As  may 
readily  be  imagined,  the  more  ardent  spirits  in  Warsaw  were 
speedily  initiated  into  the  mysteries  of  the  sect.  Commit- 
tees were  formed,  a  propaganda  was  set  on  foot,  and  the  mine 
prepared  here  on  the  same  scientific  principles  as  had  been 


CRACOW    DURING   THE    INSURRECTION    OF    1863.         205 

followed  in  the  case  of  Turkey,  Hungary,  and  Italy.  In 
February,  1861,  the  first  decided  demonstration  was  made  by 
this  party  in  Warsaw.  Then  it  was  that  the  aristocracy,  or 
party  of  order,  as  represented  by  the  Agricultural  Society, 
became  really  conscious  of  the  existence  of  a  powerful  and 
dangerous  rival,  and  a  struggle  took  place  for  the  pre-em- 
inence. The  disturbances  which  ensued  led  to  the  dissolu- 
tion of  the  Agricultural  Society  ;  but  the  members,  unwilling 
to  abandon  the  policy  they  had  marked  out  for  themselves, 
formed  a  secret  committee  out  of  their  number,  with  the  ob- 
ject of  counteracting  the  efforts  which  the  opposition  party 
might  make  to  precipitate  the  revolutionary  crisis.  They 
believed  that  patience  was  all  that  was  needed  to  insure  tlie 
ultimate  independence  of  Poland,  and  trusted  to  the  progress 
of  civilization,  and  to  gradual  measures  of  reform  which  they 
hoped  by  legitimate  pressure  to  extort  from  the  Russian  gov- 
ernment, so  to  elevate  the  masses  that  the  nation  might  be 
enabled  to  triumph  at  last  by  a  moral  victory.  The  younger 
and  more  ardent  spirits  who  rallied  round  the  other  party 
were  not  prepared  to  take  this  philosophic  view  of  the  situa- 
tion; some  of  them  even  formed  a  third  committee,  and 
adopted  Mieroslawski  as  their  leader.  The  party  of  action, 
unable  to  control  the  forces  they  had  set  in  motion,  saw  the 
necessity  of  preparing  for  the  great  struggle  which  was  inevi- 
table, and  the  summer  of  1863  was  the  time  fixed  for  the 
outbreak.  The  danger  which  threatened  the  Russian  power 
in  Poland  was  imminent.  To  avert  it  the  government  re- 
sorted to  the  expedient  of  the  Conscription  Act,  which  con- 
tained lists  of  the  suspected  and  dangerous  youth  of  the 
country  who  were  thus  to  be  drafted  off  to  the  army  serving 
in  the  eastern  provinces  of  Russia.  By  enforcing  this  meas- 
ure in  the  depth  of  winter  it  was  hoped  that  any  outbreak 
would  be  rendered  impossible  ;  but  Providence  had  willed 
it  otherwise,  and  Poland  escaped  that  year  almost  without 
a  winter  at  all.  The  connection  which  subsisted  between 
most  of  the  employees  and  the  committee  rendered  the  secrecy 


206  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

which  the  government  intended  to  maintain  with  reference 
to  the  names  of  the  conscripts  impossible.  Thus  forewarned, 
those  youths  who  found  themselves  doomed  determined 
rather  to  risk  the  chances  of  existence  in  the  woods  than  in- 
cur a  certain  exile  in  the  deserts  of  Orenburg.  In  opposi- 
tion to  the  earnest  recommendations  of  their  own  committee, 
and  without  any  kind  of  preparation  for  campaigning,  a  thou- 
sand young  men  suddenly  betook  themselves  in  January  to 
the  forests  and  morasses  with  which  the  country  abounds ; 
and,  arming  themselves  as  best  they  could,  precipitated  a 
struggle  which,  commenced  at  such  a  season  of  the  year  and 
under  such  auspices,  seemed  even  to  the  party  of  action  al- 
most hopeless.  But  the  mildness  of  the  season  favored 
them :  some  unexpected  successes  kindled  hope  when  it  had 
ceased  to  exist.  The  committee  of  the  party  of  action  de- 
termined to  make  the  best  of  it,  and  strained  every  nerve  to 
procure  arms  and  ammunition,  and  to  increase  the  number 
of  the  bands.  Soon  one  or  two  leaders  became  known  to 
fame  by  the  successes  they  achieved,  and  of  these  Langie- 
wicz  was  the  most  prominent.  Meantime  the  party  of  order 
stood  aloof,  awaiting  the  triumph  of  their  policy  which  they 
considered  certain  to  result  from  the  failure  of  the  prema- 
ture outbreak.  So  far  from  these  expectations  being  realized, 
the  movement  acquired  greater  proportions  from  day  to  day, 
until  it  became  evident  that  the  patriotic  sentiment  of  the 
nation  at  large  was  roused,  and  that  it  would  not  do  for  the 
most  powerful  and  influential  class  to  remain  longer  passive 
spectators.  Negotiations  took  place  between  the  committees, 
which  resulted  in  the  nomination  of  Langiewicz  as  dictator,  a 
good  deal  to  the  surprise  of  that  leader,  and  under  circum- 
stances which  have  never  been  fully  cleared  up,  and  which 
seem  to  have  partaken  more  of  accident  than  design.  The 
effect  in  Europe  was  in  many  respects  favorable  to  the  move- 
ment. It  invested  it  with  a  character  of  permanence  and 
stability  abroad  which  riveted  European  interest  far  more 
decidedly  than  when  it  was  under  the  direction  of  an  un- 


CRACOW    DURING   THE    INSURRECTION    OF    1863.         207 

known  committee  at  Warsaw.  At  home,  it  enlisted  in  the 
cause  the  moderate  party,  who  had  resisted  the  direction  of 
the  opposition  committee,  and  who  accepted  as  a  compro- 
mise the  dictatorship  of  a  single  individual.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  measure  was  not  without  its  dangers.  By  concen- 
trating public  attention  too  closely  upon  the  fortunes  of  one 
individual,  the  success  of  the  movement  was  apt  to  be  too 
much  identified  with  his  fate,  and  any  serious  disaster  to 
him  or  his  army  might  compromise  the  success  of  the  cause. 
For  Poland,  a  still  greater  inconvenience  attended  the  step. 
The  very  fact  that  the  nomination  of  Langiewicz  had  satis- 
fied the  moderate  party,  and  enlisted  their  sympathies  in  be- 
half of  the  movement,  operated  against  him  in  the  minds  of 
those  who  had  been  the  most  violent  opponents  of  that  party, 
and  who  distrusted  any  leader  who  possessed  their  confi- 
dence, more  especially  when  he  was  invested  not  merely 
with  the  military  direction  of  the  insurrection,  but  was  pos- 
sessed of  civil  powers  as  well.  At  the  head  of  this  faction, 
Mieroslawski,  who  already  had  many  adherents  in  the  coun- 
try, hastened  to  place  himself  It  is  unnecessary  here  to  al- 
lude to  the  past  history  of  this  man,  or  to  the  disasters  by 
which  all  his  enterprises  had  been  invariably  characterized. 
He  had  only  once  taken  part  in  active  operations  during  the 
struggle,  and  his  countrymen  accused  him  of  having  exhibit- 
ed cowardice  upon  that  occasion,  and  thus  lost  the  fortunes 
of  the  day  ;  at  all  events,  he  left  the  band  of  which  for  a  few 
days  he  had  been  the  leader,  and  repaired  to  Cracow,  in  the 
neighborhood  of  which  city  his  rival  Langiewicz  was  en- 
deavoring to  organize  an  army.  In  spite  of  the  efforts  of  the 
Austrian  police  authorities,  he  managed  to  conceal  himself 
successfully  there,  and  to  carry  out  those  intrigues  in  the 
camp  of  the  dictator  which  at  last  conduced  largely  to  his 
downfall.  The  prominence  which  had  been  given  to  Langie- 
wicz, while  it  rallied  to  his  standard  volunteers  from  all  parts 
of  the  country,  was  by  no  means  an  assistance  to  his  military 
operations.     His  nomination  was,  in  fact,  premature,  and  his 


2o8  EPISODES    IN    A   LIFE   OF    ADVENTURE. 

position  an  impossible  one,  even  for  a  man  of  genius.  For 
one  of  ordinary  capacity,  a  fiasco  was  inevitable  ;  it  only 
needed  a  traitor  in  the  camp  to  hasten  the  catastrophe.  The 
first  elements  of  authority  were  wanting.  He  possessed 
neither  an  army  to  carry  out  his  military  designs,  nor  an  ad- 
ministrative machinery  to  give  effect  to  his  political  views. 
Hunted  from  one  wood  to  another,  deprived  of  all  regular 
means  of  communication,  how  was  he  to  assume  the  func- 
tions of  the  Warsaw  committee,  and  control  or  direct  the 
movement  throughout  the  whole  country?  In  the  absence 
of  any  regular  base  of  operations,  without  artillery,  commis- 
sariat, means  of  transport,  or  any  of  the  appliances  of  a  regu- 
lar army,  how  was  he  to  undertake  a  campaign  against  Rus- 
sian troops?  During  the  few  days  of  breathing-time  al- 
lowed him  by  the  Russians,  after  a  most  trying  campaign,  or 
rather  series  of  forced  marches,  the  youths  of  Galicia  flocked 
by  hundreds  to  his  standard.  Without  even  a  nucleus  of 
trained  soldiers  upon  which  to  form  them,  without  arms  to 
put  into  the  hands  of  these  undisciplined  men,  without  time 
to  instruct  them  in  the  use  of  the  few  they  had,  Langiewicz 
found  himself  compelled  once  more  to  take  the  field  at  the 
head  of  a  mob  of  about  three  thousand,  persons,  most  of 
whom  had  never  seen  a  shot  fired  in  anger,  while  some  har- 
bored designs  fatal  to  his  authority.  The  Russian  tactics 
meantime  seem  to  have  been  to  allow  a  sufficient  crowd  to 
collect,  and  then  to  concentrate  upon  it  an  overwhelming 
force.  On  the  17th  of  March  Langiewicz  found  himself  sur- 
rounded by  the  Russians,  and,  after  a  short  conflict,  succeed- 
ed in  keeping  the  enemy  at  bay,  and  passing  the  night  on 
the  field  of  battle.  On  the  following  day  he  was  again  com- 
pelled to  accept  battle,  and  again  his  army  made  up  by 
heroic  valor  for  their  want  of  organization.  They  had  now 
been  two  days  without  food,  their  ammunition  was  expended, 
and  the  enemy,  though  beaten  back  with  loss,  was  still  re- 
ceiving reinforcements,  and  closing  round  them.  The  mo- 
ment was  opportune  for  those  who  wished  to  work  upon  the 


CRACOW    DURING   THE    INSURRECTION   OF    1 863.         209 

feelings  of  men  wearied  and  disheartened  by  hardship.  The 
murmurs  which  had  been  heard  in  the  camp  swelled  omi- 
nously. The  dictator  found  his  authority  questioned  by  his 
own  men,  while  he  had  no  means  of  closing  their  mouths 
with  food,  or  of  supplying  them  with  ammunition  to  repulse 
another  attack  of  the  enemy.  The  position  was  one  which 
would  have  demoralized  a  greater  spirit  than  that  which  the 
partisan  leader  possessed.  He  determined  to  leave  the  or- 
ders which  he  considered  best  calculated  to  insure  the  safety 
of  the  army,  and  to  start  himself  in  the  middle  of  the  night 
for  another  part  of  the  country,  with  the  view  of  appearing 
as  dictator  in  a  new  sphere  of  action.  The  following  was 
the  proclamation  which  he  left  to  be  issued  after  his  de- 
parture : 

"Brave  and  Faithful  Companions, — My  office  as  dictator  re- 
quires my  attention  to  various  civil  and  military  matters,  and  to  the 
strengthening  of  our  numerous  bands  fighting  the  Muscovite  in  other 
portions  of  the  country,  all  of  which  require  abetter  organization. 

"  This  necessity  forces  me  to  leave  your  ranks  for  a  short  time — those 
ranks  in  which  I  have  been  since  the  first  night  of  the  insurrection.  I 
had  hoped  not  to  have  been  forced  to  leave  you  without  sharing  in  a  first 
victory;  for  this  reason  I  sought  a  battle  near  Miechow  :  I  stopped  at 
Chrobierz,  and  fought  the  bloody  encounter  of  Grochowiska. 

"I  do  not  take  leave  of  you.  The  objects  of  my  journey  requiring 
secrecy,  I  cannot  tell  you  whither  I  am  directing  my  course.  I  take  with 
me  several  officers  to  supply  other  detachments  with  commanders. 
Thirty  lancers  will  accompany  me  as  an  escort,  and  will  afterwards  re- 
turn to  camp.  I  have  divided  my  corps  in  two  parts  with  distinct  com- 
manders, and  I  have  given  instructions  to  these. 

"We  have  all  sworn  to  fight.  I  shall  keep  my  promise,  companions, 
and  expect  obedience  on  your  part,  and  a  faithful  service  to  the  cause  ot 
our  country. 

"  We  will  continue  to  fight  Russia  in  the  name  of  the  Almighty,  until 
we  obtain  the  liberty  and  independence  of  our  country. 

"  (Signed)  M.  Langiewicz." 

The  intrigues  which  existed  in  the  camp  rendered  it  im- 
possible for  Langiewicz  to  stay  and  see  these  orders  carried 
out.     He  took  most  of  his  own  staff  with  him  across  the 


2IO  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

Galician  frontier,  hoping  to  pass  unobserved  into  the  Pala- 
tinate of  Lublin,  and  avoid  the  Russian  troops  by  taking  a 
short  cut  through  the  Austrian  province.  When  day  broke 
upon  the  hungry,  harassed  men  he  had  left  behind,  their  in- 
dignation at  finding  themselves  deserted  by  their  leader 
knew  no  bounds.  Only  one  detachment,  commanded  by 
Czachowski,  which  had  left  the  day  before,  succeeded  in 
getting  through  the  Russian  army  and  reaching  the  moun- 
tains of  St.  Croix.  A  general  panic  seized  those  who  woke 
on  the  morning  of  the  20th,  which  resulted  in  a  scramble  for 
Galicia.  The  plans  for  a  division  of  the  army  were  disre- 
garded ;  the  leaders  who  remained  found  themselves  without 
authority  ;  the  coup  was  so  unexpected  ;  the  desertion,  to  the 
great  mass  of  persons  who  did  not  understand  the  intrigues 
which  had  forced  it  upon  Langiewicz,  seemed  so  base  that 
the  whole  army  was  demoralized,  and  retreated  precipitately 
towards  Cracow, 

Many  of  them  escaped  capture  by  the  Austrian  patrols  on 
the  frontier,  and  reached  that  town  wearied  and  disheart- 
ened, to  spread  the  sad  details  among  the  anxious  and 
gloomy  population  ;  but  by  far  the  greater  number  were 
brought  in  as  prisoners  by  the  Austrians,  and  lodged  in  the 
riding-school,  and  other  public  buildings  in  the  town.  On 
the  day  of  my  arrival  Langiewicz  was  brought  in  a  prisoner, 
and  placed  in  the  castle  ;  but  all  access  to  him  was  forbid- 
den, so  I  contented  myself  with  going  to  the  riding-school  to 
see  the  debris  of  his  late  army.  A  company  of  Austrian 
soldiers  grouped  round  the  entrance  kept  off  the  crowd 
which  had  collected  under  the  trees  opposite  the  building, 
and  which  was  composed  of  a  large  proportion  of  women. 
All  were  anxious,  under  various  pretexts,  to  obtain  admit- 
tance, but  only  a  certain  number  were  let  in  at  a  time,  and 
these  ostensibly  only  upon  the  ground  of  relations  or  friends 
being  among  the  prisoners  \  but  really  no  indisposition  on 
the  part  of  the  Austrians  was  shown  to  relaxing  as  much  as 
possible  the  strictness  of  their  guard.     The  soldiers  and  the 


■     CRACOW   DURING   THE    INSURRECTION   OF    1863.         211 

people  seemed  to  understand  each  other  perfectly,  and  a  lit- 
tle patience  and  civility  was  all  that  was  needed  to  gain  ad- 
mittance. The  interior  of  the  building  presented  a  curious 
sight :  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  ragged,  half  starved, 
footsore  young  men  were  here  collected  together — some  ly- 
ing asleep  on  the  straw,  with  which  the  floor  was  abundantly 
littered — others  gazing  listlessly  at  the  motley  groups  which 
filled  the  body  of  the  large  room,  or  patching  their  torn  gar- 
ments or  their  blistered  feet.  Moving  restlessly  about  were 
women  in  black,  with  anxious,  sympathizing  countenances, 
and  with  crinolines  and  shawls  distended  by  articles  of  wear- 
ing apparel  or  creature  comforts,  which  they  had  surrepti- 
tiously brought  in  for  the  famished  and  ragged  insurgents. 
Here  you  saw  an  elderly  female  with  her  petticoats  over  her 
head,  and  two  or  three  sturdy  youths  extracting  articles  from 
her  undergarments  ;  there  a  gentleman  was  putting  a  half- 
clad  figure  into  his  own  paletot,  and  watching  the  opportu- 
nity when  they  might  slip  out  arm-in-arm  past  the  good-nat- 
ured sentries.  Here  was  a  knot  of  hungry  men  emptying 
a  hamper  and  eagerly  discussing  its  contents ;  in  one  cor- 
ner, with  very  little  ceremony,  two  lads  were  changing  their 
trousers,  and  trying  on  boots.  No  sooner  was  a  prisoner 
sufficiently  transmogrified  to  pass  for  a  respectable  member 
of  society,  than  he  gave  his  arm  to  a  lady  and  walked  out 
under  her  escort  with  an  assumed  air  of  dignity  and  noncha- 
lance, flattering  himself,  perhaps,  that  the  Austrian  guard 
did  not  know  that  he  was  escaping.  The  fact  was  that  the 
Austrians  had  more  upon  their  shoulders  than  they  could 
comfortably  manage.  In  one  way  or  other  nearly  two  thou- 
sand men  had  fallen  into,  or  rather  passed  through,  their 
hands;  for  a  prisoner  must  have  wanted  ingenuity  indeed 
who  remained  a  prisoner  long.  Still,  so  far  as  appearances 
went,  Langiewicz's  army,  like  himself,  was  in  captivity.  The 
fact  that  an  Austrian  soldier  had  been  killed  the  same  morn- 
ing by  the  Russians,  who  had  violated  the  frontier  in  pursuit 
of  the  insurgents,  was  a  circumstance  which  did  not  tend  to 


212  EPISODES    IN    A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

render  the  Austrian  soldiers  unnecessarily  severe  with  the 
latter.  Indeed,  a  very  strong  feeling  of  exasperation  had 
sprung  up  between  the  Austrian  and  Russian  troops ;  while, 
as  most  of  the  Austrian  regiments  employed  in  Galicia  had 
been  recruited  in  that  province,  there  was  every  inclination 
to  be  as  lenient  as  possible  in  their  dealings  with  the  insur- 
gents. As  all  those  of  the  more  respectable  classes  who  had 
been  with  Langiewicz  had  succeeded  in  escaping  from  du- 
rance during  the  first  twenty-four  hours,  the  men  I  saw  were 
of  an  inferior  condition.  I  conversed  with  many  who  were 
either  domestic  servants  or  artisans,  and  was  surprised  to  find 
into  how  low  a  grade  in  society  the  patriotic  feeling  had 
spread.  Most  of  them  were  from  the  kingdom,  as  Russian 
Poland  was  always  called  ;  and  as  they  had  no  friends  in 
Cracow,  some  of  them  manifested  no  particular  anxiety  to 
escape,  as  without  clothes  or  money  their  predicament 
would  not  be  much  improved.  However,  a  subscription 
was  speedily  got  up  in  the  town,  charitable  ladies  bought 
food  and  raiment,  and  ultimately  the  greater  number  were 
provided  for  somehow  or  other.  One  man  I  observed  whose 
Tartar  physiognomy  plainly  showed  a  different  origin  from 
that  of  his  companions  ;  he  turned  out  to  be  a  deserter  from 
the  Russian  army,  belonging  to  one  of  the  eastern  prov- 
inces of  the  empire.  He  was  quite  unable  to  make  himself 
understood,  but  seemed  perfectly  contented  with  his  lot. 
Soon  the  presence  of  so  many  refugee  insurgents  became  ap- 
parent in  the  streets  of  Cracow.  It  was  not  difficult  to  tell 
those  who  had  been  in  the  wars — a  very  few  weeks  of  hard- 
ship and  exposure  leave  their  traces  on  the  face ;  and  even 
though  nothing  in  the  dress  indicated  the  recent  occupation 
of  the  wearer,  it  was  not  easily  to  be  concealed;  but  many 
were  either  without  means  of  disguising  themselves,  or  did 
not  care  to  take  the  trouble  to  do  so.  The  day  of  mystery  had 
gone  by  ;  the  whole  town  was  in  a  ferment ;  committees  were 
sitting ;  insurgents  expatiating  on  the  past  or  future ;  gossips 
retailing  news ;  women  engaged  in  acts  of  benevolence  and 


CRACOW   DURING   THB   INSURRECTION    OF    1 863.         213 

charity.  Everybody  was  in  black,  every  countenance  was 
gloomy  and  anxious,  and  a  feeling  of  despondent  restlessness 
pervaded  the  community.  There  is  a  quaint  old  square  in 
Cracow,  with  a  cathedral  on  one  side,  some  public  buildings 
on  the  other,  and  a  large  covered  market-place  down  the 
centre.  Here  peasant  women  crowd  on  market  days  in 
picturesque  dresses,  and  sell  vegetables  ;  at  other  times  they 
leave  it  to  excited  groups  of  patriots.  There  was  always  a  sort 
of  movement  going  on  here,  and  if  you  got  tired  of  the  soli- 
tude of  your  chamber,  you  could  go  out  and  find  in  a  mo- 
ment some  melancholy  friend  with  whom  to  discourse  on 
passing  events,  or  from  whom  the  last  piece  of  exciting  in- 
telligence might  be  gleaned  ;  but  the  question,  as  I  have 
already  said,  which  chiefly  agitated  the  public  mind  at  this 
moment,  was  the  effect  likely  to  be  produced  abroad  by  the 
events  which  were  now  transpiring.  ^ 

I  have  endeavored,  in  as  condensed  a  form  as  possible, 
to  give  the  history  of  the  movement  up  to  this  point,  to  con- 
vey some  idea  of  the  condition  of  feeling  in  Austrian  and 
Russian  Poland,  as  influenced  by  the  different  systems 
adopted  by  the  two  governments,  and  to  narrate  the  circum- 
stances which  produced  the  actual  situation  of  affairs  as  they 
existed  on  my  arrival  at  Cracow.  It  will  easily  be  perceived 
now,  why,  on  calm  consideration,  the  cause  itself  did  not  seem 
in  the  eyes  of  those  who  were  most  interested  in  the  move- 
ment, and  most  capable  of  judging,  to  have  suffered  by  the 
capture  of  the  dictator.  In  the  first  place,  the  fusion  of  par- 
ties, so  essential  to  its  ultimate  success,  was  in  a  great  meas- 
ure achieved  by  the  nomination  of  Langiewicz.  During  his 
brief  reign  the  aristocracy  had  more  or  less  become  com- 
promised in  the  insurrection,  and  could  not,  even  if  they  had 
desired,  now  abandon  it.  In  the  second,  with  the  fall  of 
Langiewicz,  his  dangerous  rival,  Mieroslawski,  disappeared, 
at  all  events  for  the  present,  from  the  scene.  The  party 
whose  bond  of  union  was  antagonism  to  the  dictator,  ceased 
to  exist  when  he  resigned  his  functions  in  that  capacity,  be- 


214  EPISODES    IN    A    LIFE   OF    ADVENTURE. 

trayed  by  Mieroslawski.  Discredited  by  his  previous  achieve- 
ments, the  latter  was  now  execrated  as  the  prime  cause  of 
the  late  disaster,  and  not  even  the  most  advanced  members 
of  the  party  of  action  would  venture  to  acknowledge  him  as 
a  colleague.  A  general  sentiment  of  cohesion  was  produced 
by  the  very  exigencies  of  the  situation.  The  crisis  was  too 
grave  to  indulge  in  petty  animosities,  or  allow  petty  ambi- 
tion to  triumph.  For  the  moment  there  was  a  universal 
rush  to  the  rescue,  an  earnest  desire  to  see  where  the  mis- 
take had  been,  how  it  was  to  be  remedied,  and  to  think  what 
it  was  best  to  do  next ;  but,  as  usual  when  there  is  no  leader 
of  decided  eminence,  there  were  a  great  many  different  opin- 
ions upon  the  subject.  Before  people  had  had  time  to  re- 
flect, there  was  an  impulse  to  appoint  another  dictator ;  and 
in  spite  of  the  failure  of  the  last,  there  were  those  who 
thought  themselves  capable  of  filling  the  office.  Persons 
like  myself,  who  were  necessarily  not  thoroughly  informed 
as  to  the  nature  of  the  various  projects  discussed  by  the 
committees  which  sat  at  Cracow,  could  only  follow  vaguely 
the  course  of  events,  or  obtain  a  confused  notion  of  the  diffi- 
culties which  at  such  a  crisis  must  always  to  a  greater  or 
less  extent  impede  the  current  of  affairs.  It  was  impossible 
for  the  two  great  political  sections  which  had  hitherto  al- 
ways found  themselves  in  antagonism,  to  forget  completely 
their  old  prejudices  ;  and  though  they  were  animated  by  the 
best  intentions,  and  were  most  anxious  to  conceal  from 
strangers  any  want  of  harmony  in  their  councils,  it  would  be 
contrary  to  human  nature  to  suppose  that  they  both  took  the 
same  view  as  to  the  most  expedient  measures  to  be  adopted. 
It  is  useless  now  to  recur  to  the  points  of  difference  which 
arose,  as  they  were  all  settled  more  or  less  satisfactorily  at 
last,  and  both  sides  were  driven  by  the  nature  of  the  emer- 
gency into  making  concessions  for  the  common  cause.  The 
truce  was  precipitated  in  an  unexpected  way  by  the  appear- 
ance of  the  following  proclamation  issued  by  the  Warsaw 
Central  Committee,  resuming  the  functions  which  they  had 
abdicated  on  the  nomination  of  Langiewicz : 


CRACOW    DURING    THE    INSURRECTION    OF    1S63.       215 

"  Warsaw,  2']th  March. 

"PROCLAMATION. 

"The  Central  Committee,  as  National  government,  informs  the  nation 
that,  in  consequence  of  the  arrest  of  the  dictator,  Langiewicz,  by  the 
Austrian  government,  the  supreme  national  authority  has  been  resumed 
by  them.  With  a  view  to  guarantee  the  country  from  the  confusion  that 
might  arise  from  attempts  to  seize  the  supreme  power  by  any  single  in- 
dividual, the  assumption  of  dictatorial  authority,  or  of  any  other  form  of 
government,  whether  at  home  or  abroad,  is  declared  treasonable." 

There  were  doubtless  those  at  Cracow  who  were  discon- 
certed at  the  suddenness  of  the  measure,  which  was  in  fact 
the  act  of  a  single  individual,  since  killed  in  a  duel,  but 
which  produced  a  good  effect  in  one  respect,  that  it  recalled 
to  the  minds  of  the  Cracow  people  the  existence  of  a  very 
influential  body  at  Warsaw ;  for  it  was  not  unnatural  that, 
Cracow  being  for  the  time  the  centre  of  the  movement,  the 
persons  interested  in  it  there  should  have  assumed  to  them- 
selves the  initiative.  Anything,  however,  was  better  than 
chaos  ;  and  for  the  first  three  or  four  days  after  the  resig- 
nation of  Langiewicz,  there  was  a  period  when  everybody 
wanted  to  do  what  was  best,  but  no  one  knew  how  to  do  it, 
and  there  was  no  one  to  tell  them.  Now,  at  least,  there  was  a 
point (fappni.  No  doubt  there  were  prejudices  to  be  got  over 
on  the  part  of  those  who  had  all  along  objected  to  the  direc- 
tion of  affairs  being  undertaken  by  any  secret  society  ;  on  the 
other  hand,  their  alternative  had  been  tried  and  had  failed. 
The  only  thing  remaining  was  a  compromise  between  the 
two  rival  committees,  and  discussions  to  bring  this  about  oc- 
cupied the  leaders  of  the  parties  during  that  moment  of  lull 
which  succeeded  the  downfall  of  Langiewicz.  The  pressure 
of  public  opinion  without,  no  less  than  the  magnitude  of 
the  crisis  within,  tended  to  facilitate  this  fusion.  Both 
parties  felt  that  the  eyes  of  Europe  were  upon  them  ;  that 
nothing  would  be  more  fatal  to  the  good  opinion  they  de- 
sired to  obtain  than  the  idea  of  any  split  in  the  camp.  The 
aristocracy  were  extremely  anxious  to  dissipate  any  impres- 


2l6  EPISODES   IN    A   LIFE    OF  ADVENTURE. 

sion  which  might  exist  abroad  that  the  movement  was  revo- 
lutionary in  the  democratic  sense  of  the  term.  They  were 
fairly  committed  to  it,  and  could  best  prove  its  true  character 
by  going  thoroughly  along  with  it,  and  using  their  influence 
as  best  they  might  with  those  they  had  formerly  opposed. 
Their  antagonists  were  too  glad  to  obtain  such  valuable  co- 
operation to  make  any  unnecessary  difficulties.  They  too 
decided  on  substituting  for  political  theories  practical  exe- 
cution ;  and  both  sides  at  once  recognized  the  strength 
which  such  a  union  would  give  them,  and  the  beneficial  ef- 
fect it  would  produce  upon  foreign  cabinets.  Henceforward' 
there  was  to  be  no  party  of  action,  no  moderate  party ;  each 
and  all  were  to  combine  to  make  Poland  independent  of 
Russia,  and  to  allow  no  sectional  jealousy  to  interfere  with 
the  one  great  national  aim. 

There  was  one  other  respect  in  which  the  experience 
gained  during  the  dictatorship  was  most  useful.  The  inex- 
pediency of  massing  together  large  bodies  of  undisciplined 
men  had  been  made  apparent  by  the  disaster  which  befell 
Langiewicz's  army.  Hitherto  the  Poles  had  regarded  with 
feelings  akin  to  discontent  the  scattered  bands  which  might 
harass  the  enemy,  but  could  not  signalize  the  insurrection 
by  any  grand  military  operation.  Unused  to  guerilla  tac- 
tics, and  imbued  with  the  traditions  and  associations  of  reg- 
ular warfare,  their  ambition  was  to  form  an  army  which 
might  meet  the  Russians  in  the  field,  and  settle,  by  a  few  de- 
cisive actions,  the  fate  of  their  country.  Any  such  hope  was 
now  clearly  delusive  :  circumstances  rendered  the  formation 
of  an  army  impossible,  and  victory  must  be  considered  to 
consist,  not  in  meeting  and  defeating  the  enemy,  but  in  co- 
existing with  him,  and  keeping  the  country  in  a  state  of 
chronic  disorganization.  Cracow  was  the  natural  and  most 
available  centre  for  concerting  the  measures  necessary  to 
this  system  of  partisan  warfare,  and  it  was  therefore  my  first 
point  of  observation.  After  I  had  learned  all  that  was  to 
be  discovered  here,  I  determined  to  push  on  to  Warsaw. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

EXPERIENCE    DURING   THE    POLISH    INSURRECTION  :    WARSAW. 

If  it  was  impossible,  without  visiting  Poland,  to  obtain  an 
accurate  idea  of  the  true  character  of  the  insurrection,  and 
of  the  nature  of  the  obstacles  with  which  it  had  to  contend,  it 
was  still  more  difficult  for  me  to  convey  in  any  satisfactory 
form  the  result  of  my  observations.  As  an  essential  con- 
dition to  the  ultimate  success  of  the  movement  was  secrecy, 
a  stranger  must  enjoy  peculiar  advantages  to  acquire  infor- 
mation of  any  real  value,  and  could  only  expect  to  be  let  in 
behind  the  scenes  upon  the  assumption,  not  merely  that  he 
was  thoroughly  trustworthy,  but  that  his  sympathies  were  en- 
tirely with  the  insurgents.  He  was  thus  naturally  expected 
to  tell  only  what  might  advance  the  cause,  and  to  color, 
with  a  pardonable  enthusiasm,  his  narration  of  the  events 
which  had  come  under  his  notice.  Under  no  circumstances 
was  he  regarded  as  an  impartial  observer,  whose  only  object 
was  the  discovery  of  truth:  if  he  was  not  a  frantic  and  un- 
reasoning partisan  either  of  one  side  or  the  other,  he  could 
be  nothing  else  than  a  political  spy.  In  that  case,  it  was 
probable  that  both  parties  would  tell  him  just  so  much  as 
they  thought  proper,  and  might  possibly  also  take  great  pains 
to  mislead  him,  where  it  might  seem  to  serve  their  ends. 
Neither  Russians  nor  Poles  would  ever  believe  that  an  Eng- 
lishman should  have  no  other  object  in  visiting  them  than 
that  of  relieving  the  monotony  of  the  London  season  by  a 
little  mild  excitement  likely  to  be  afforded  by  the  investiga- 
tion of  the  country  in  a  state  of  revolution,  or  that  he  should 
be  animated  by  the  still  more  natural  and  worthy  molise  of 

lO 


2l8  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE, 

improving  Ills  mind,  and  forming  his  own  opinions  upon  the 
political  events  of  the  day.  That  he  should  travel  on  beaten 
paths  for  the  mere  purpose  of  sight-seeing,  is  in  their  eyes  a 
silly  English  eccentricity,  to  which  they  have  got  accus- 
tomed; but  that  he  should  take  an  abstract  interest  in  the 
moral,  political,  social,  or  religious  condition  of  foreign  na- 
tions, is  to  them  incomprehensible.  That  one  should  not  be 
contented  with  learning  geography  at  school,  but  choose  as 
a  pursuit  the  observation  of  men,  and  the  study  of  the  work- 
ing and  effects  of  their  institutions  in  different  countries,  is 
in  their  eyes  simply  ludicrous ;  and  yet  it  is  only  the  ex- 
ploratory tendency  cropping  out  in  another  form.  Instead 
of  plunging  into  the  centre  of  Africa  to  discover  the  source 
of  the  Nile,  like  Speke  and  Grant,  why  not  dive  into  the 
sources  of  revolutions.-'  Why  confine  exploration  to  physi- 
cal geography,  when  there  are  so  many  moral  and  political 
geographical  problems  yet  unsolved  ?  When  does  human 
nature  lie  more  open  to  philosophical  examination  than  when 
convulsed  by  mixed  and  violent  passions  ?  When  is  the 
value  of  political  institutions  better  tested  than  during  a 
revolution  ?  When  is  the  national  character  more  easily 
read?  What  is  more  exciting  than  the  acquisition  of  knowl- 
edge when  everybody  conspires  to  retain  it  from  you  }  What 
more  interesting  than  those  speculations  upon  the  future,  to 
which  the  most  critical  moments  in  a  nation's  history  give 
rise?  There  was  a  fermentation  in  political  opinion  upon 
the  Continent  in  1863  which  promised  to  be  a  fruitful  source 
of  revolution,  but  each  movement  would  owe  its  origin  to 
different  causes  ;  it  would  be  marked  by  its  own  special  con- 
ditions; and  just  in  proportion  as  his  former  experience  has 
enabled  the  observer  to  arrive  at  just  and  accurate  conclu- 
sions, would  he  find  an  interest  in  bringing  his  knowledge  to 
bear  on  each  successive  occasion,  and  thus  be  better  able  to 
examine,  with  the  calm  and  impartial  scrutiny  of  a  surgeon, 
the  seat  of  the  disease,  watch  its  progress,  and  predict  its 
result. 


POLISH    insurrection:    WARSAW.  219 

The  happy  privilege  which  EngHshmen  possess  of  being 
able  to  travel  without  restraint,  and  to  express  their  opin- 
ions openly  and  without  reserve,  is  calculated  to  puzzle  and 
mislead  foreigners  who  have  lived  in  the  retirement  of  op- 
pressed nationalities.  The  impossibility  of  being  frank  and 
open  among  themselves  renders  them  suspicious  of  those 
who  come  without  arricre pensee  to  visit  them,  and  have  no 
reason  to  disguise  their  feelings  on  political  subjects. 

Thus,  I  was  not  surprised  to  find  in  the  Czas,  a  Polish 
newspaper  published  at  Cracow,  the  following  paragraph, 
sent  to  it  from  Warsaw,  on  the  occasion  of  my  visit  to  that 
city,  by  its  special  correspondent,  who  evidently  could  not 
conceive  it  possible  that  I  should  go  there  at  such  a  time 
for  my  own  amusement,  and,  when  there,  that  I  should  say 
what  I  thought : 

"  Warsaw,  25//;  April. 

"  I  have  some  further  news  to  announce  to  you  respecting ,  the  Eng- 
lishman who,  ostensibly  in  the  character  of  an  ordinary  tourist  and  ob- 
server, but  really,  I  believe,  with  an  object  well  known  to  Palmcrston,  has 
arrived  here  to  have  a  nearer  view  of  us.  In  general,  he  expressed  him- 
self with  great  hostility  towards  France  ;  he  thinks  we  ought  to  turn  out 
the  Russians  by  every  possible  means — even  the  least  proper ;  at  the 
same  time  he  tried  very  hard  to  frighten  us  by  detailing  the  sad  conse- 
quences of  an  eventful  French  intervention,  pointing  out  with  much  in- 
dignation the  traditional  policy  of  the  Napoleonic  race,  whose  members, 
while  constantly  making  use  of  us,  always  ended  by  leaving  us  to  our  own 
efforts.  He  expressed  much  love  for  us  in  the  naine  of  the  three  United 
Kingdoms  of  Great  Britain ;  it  was,  however,  not  difficult  to  perceive  be- 
neath this  fine  appearance  of  sympathy  a  much  deeper  object." 

In  other  words,  I  only  expressed  the  sentiments  of  nine 
Englishmen  out  of  ten,  when  I  told  those  Poles  with  whom 
I  conversed  that  they  possessed  the  sympathies  of  the  Eng- 
lish generally,  and  that  they  would  retain  those  sympathies 
more  surely  by  trusting  to  their  own  efforts  alone  to  expel 
the  Russians  from  Poland,  than  by  looking  to  the  French 
emperor  for  assistance,  while,  like  the  Italians,  they  might 
feel  the  weight  of  their  obligations  to  France  little  less  op- 


2  20  EPISODES    IN    A    LIFE   OF    ADVENTURE. 

piessive  than  the  tyranny  from  which  they  escaped,  if  they 
owed  anything  to  her.  It  was,  indeed,  rather  trying  to  the 
temper  of  a  Briton  to  be  informed  at  every  turn  that  England 
was  the  only  obstacle  in  the  way  of  the  reconstitution  of  Po- 
land, and  that  our  selfish  policy  prevented  a  magnanimous 
and  disinterested  power  from  liberating  the  Poles,  and  ad- 
vancing the  cause  of  progress  and  humanity  in  Europe.  The 
familiarity  of  the  Poles  with  the  French  language,  and  the 
traditional  and  historical  associations  connected  with  France, 
drew  their  sympathies  strongly  towards  that  country.  Deriv- 
ing all  their  ideas  of  European  policy  through  French  news- 
papers, they  were  in  general  ignorant  of  any  other  views  than 
those  which  were  put  forward  in  them,  and  united  a  profound 
respect  for  the  French  emperor  with  an  intense  admiration  for 
the  people  he  governed.  It  is  difficult  to  say  whether  my 
supposed  capacity  of  political  intriguer  facilitated  or  impeded 
my  very  harmless  investigations  ;  on  the  one  hand,  I  found 
no  difficulty  whatever  in  hearing  a  vast  number  of  political 
opinions,  but  there  was  no  great  variety  in  them,  and  an  utter 
absence  of  facts.  I  was  perpetually  grasping  at  shadows; 
the  realities  were  there,  but  they  were  difficult  to  lay  hold  of. 
There  was  a  great  deal  going  on  while  I  was  at  Cracow; 
bands  were  forming,  people  were  plotting,  and  important 
measures  being  adopted,  and  yet  a  stranger,  while  over- 
whelmed with  kindness  and  hospitality,  was  groping  in  the 
dark.  Perhaps  this  was  only  natural,  and  the  prudence  and 
reticence  which  characterized  the  leaders  of  the  movement 
had  been  taught  by  bitter  experience  ;  but  it  stimulated  one's 
faculties  all  the  more,  and  I  regret  that  the  most  interest- 
ing items  of  information  which  I  ultimately  obtained  I  am 
not,  even  at  this  distance  of  time,  at  liberty  to  disclose.  The 
delicacy  of  the  situation  arose  out  of  the  relations  in  which 
the  Galician  Poles,  who  were  co-operating  in  every  possible 
way  with  those  in  Russia,  stood  with  reference  to  Austria. 
It  was  of  the  utmost  importance  that  the  measures  under- 
taken in  Cracow  should  be  of  such  a  nature  that  the  jeal- 


POLISH    insurrection:   WARSAW.  22  1 

ousy  or  suspicion  of  the  Austrian  government  should  not  be 
aroused — that  nothing,  in  fact,  should  be  done  which  should 
induce  the  Austrian  government  to  interpose  greater  difficul- 
ties to  the  formation  of  bands  and  the  transmission  of  arms 
than  those  which  already  existed,  Cracow  was  essential  as 
abase  of  operations  ;  the  policy  of  Prussia  had  increased  the 
value  of  Galicia  in  this  respect;  and  the  most  serious  blow 
which  the  movement  could  receive,  it  was  in  the  power  of 
Austria  to  inflict.  Every  day  almost  indicated  some  change 
in  the  policy  of  this  latter  power.  At  one  moment  the 
restrictions  were  relaxed,  and  there  seemed  a  tendency  to 
give  the  greatest  latitude  to  the  stipulations  which  exist  be- 
tween Russia  and  Austria,  in  favor  of  the  movement ;  at  an- 
other the  reins  were  unexpectedly  tightened,  and  people  who 
had  been  encouraged  into  imprudence  found  themselves  suf- 
ferers for  their  temerity.  It  did  not  do  to  trust  to  appear- 
ances. Sometimes  they  seemed  to  doze  at  Vienna,  but  it 
was  only  to  wake  up  suddenly  with  a  start.  No  doubt  this 
sort  of  spasmodic  action  on  the  part  of  the  Austrian  govern- 
ment was  in  a  great  measure  forced  upon  it  by  the  represen- 
tations of  M.  de  Balabine.  The  Russian  minister  at  Vienna 
was  better  served,  by  his  agents  at  Cracow  than  Count  Rech- 
berg,  probably  because  he  paid  them  better.  Indeed,  the 
Austrian  police  in  Galicia  had  a  profitable  time  of  it,  as  in 
addition  to  their  regular  pay  they  were  largely  subsidized  in 
secret  by  the  Russian  government.  Cracow  swarmed  with 
spies  in  Russian  pay,  and  thus  the  government  at  St.  Peters- 
burg was  kept  far  more  accurately  informed  of  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  insurgents  who  were  in  Galicia  than  of  those  who 
were  in  Russian  Poland,  inasmuch  as  it  was  always  easy  to 
find  Germans  who  would  serve  as  spies — not  so  easy  to  find 
Poles.  It  was  necessary,  then,  to  make  arrangements  for 
the  collecting  and  arming  of  bands  with  all  possible  secrecy, 
and  every  description  of  device  was  resorted  to  in  order  to 
elude  the  vigilance  of  the  Austrian  government  and  the  ob- 
servations of  the  Russian  spies.     In  order  to  appreciate  the 


222  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

difficulties  incidental  to  the  equipment  and  despatch  of  a 
band  under  these  conditions,  we  must  consider  in  detail  the 
modus  operandi.  First  of  all,  inasmuch  as  the  Russians 
lined  the  Galician  frontier  in  considerable  force  at  the  time 
of  my  visit  to  Cracow,  it  was  necessary  for  any  band  which 
crossed  into  the  kingdom  to  be  sufficiently  numerous  to  be 
able  to  repel  the  troops  they  might  encounter  on  the  other 
side.  Of  course,  just  in  proportion  to  the  size  of  the  band 
did  the  difficulties  increase.  It  was  impossible  to  form 
them  in  Cracow,  All  that  the  leader  could  know  through 
the  recognized  channel  was,  that  a  certain  number  of  men 
had  enrolled  themselves  as  his  followers.  Most  of  them, 
perhaps,  he  had  never  seen.  Some  had  obtained  arms  from 
their  own  sources,  others  were  directed  to  the  quarter  from 
whence  they  could  be  in  secret  supplied.  In  the  middle  of 
the  night  groups  of  young  men  might  occasionally  be  seen 
stealing  out  of  Cracow  in  different  directions,  and  making 
their  way  to  the  frontier.  As  the  country  is  undulating  and 
well  wooded,  the  impossibility  of  the  Austrian  patrols  guard- 
ing its  whole  extent  on  a  dark  night  is  manifest ;  besides, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  patrols  would  often  look  the 
other  way  when  they  suspected  that  insucgents  were  cross- 
ing in  the  vicinity.  At  daybreak  the  band  would  have  ar- 
rived at  the  rendezvous  —  perhaps  a  wood  a  mile  or  two  in- 
side the  frontier.  Here  they  would  be  joined  by  the  leader, 
who  would  look  over  the  men  and  material  he  found  at  his 
disposition,  and  examine  their  nondescript  arms.  Two  or 
three  wagons  loaded  with  ammunition,  which  had  been 
dragged  along  by-lanes  and  passed  the  frontier  in  safety, 
would  now  be  unloaded,  and  their  contents  distributed. 
Sometimes  all  their  munitions  of  war  would  be  intercepted, 
and  the  band,  after  having  crossed,  would  be  obliged  to  re- 
turn, and  await  a  more  auspicious  occasion  ;  but  supposing 
the  spot  to  be  happily  chosen,  and  everything  to  have  gone 
smoothly  thus  far,  the  next  object  was  to  We  perdu  as  long  as 
possible,  and  hidden  from  Russian  observation.     A  day  or 


POLISH   INSURRECTION  :    WARSAW.  223 

t'.vo  lluis  gained  was  of  infinite  value.  A  messenger  would 
go  back  to  Cracow,  to  report  proceedings.  More  men,  arms, 
and  ammunition  would  cross  over  next  night,  while  the  day 
would  be  occupied  by  the  leader  in  the  endeavor  to  impart 
some  kind  of  discipline  to  the  men,  and  in  instructing  them 
in  the  use  of  their  weapons.  With  a  new,  raw  band  the 
leader  was  unwise  if  he  removed  from  his  base  of  operations, 
which  was  Cracow,  a  day  sooner  than  he  was  obliged.  But 
he  could  not  hope  for  a  respite  of  more  than  three  or  four 
days ;  he  then  found  himself  called  upon  to  exercise  all  his 
ingenuity  to  avoid  meeting  the  enemy,  which  is  beginning 
to  close  round  him  ;  for  the  peasants,  not  well  disposed  in 
these  parts,  are  not  long  in  conveying  the  news.  However, 
he  has  supplied  himself  with  a  few  carts  and  horses,  though, 
as  his  men  have  no  clothes  except  those  they  have  on,  and 
carry  a  great  proportion  of  their  ammunition,  his  necessity 
for  land-transport  is  not  very  great.  If  he  could  manage 
to  get  away  into  the  mountains  of  St.  Croix,  or  to  bury  him- 
self in  some  of  the  woods  and  morasses  with  which  the  in- 
terior of  the  country  abounds,  he  was  comparatively  safe  ;  if 
his  band  was  not  too  large,  he  found  no  very  great  difficulty 
in  procuring  supplies;  and  if  he  was  a  prudent  leader,  his 
whole  object  was  to  keep  out  of  the  way  of  Russians  for 
weeks  to  come.  As  it  was  of  the  utmost  importance  that 
he  and  his  men  should  get  to  know  and  have  confidence  in 
each  other,  and  acquire  some  slight  knowledge  of  the  kind 
of  work  before  them,  at  first  he  confined  himself  to  opera- 
tions on  a  very  small  scale,  and  contented  himself  rather 
with  a  trifling  success  than  with  risking  the  morale  of  the 
band  by  attempting  too  ambitious  an  enterprise.  Such  had 
been  the  experience  of  Jezioranski,  Lelewel,  and  other 
leaders.  But  the  majority  of  the  bands  which  left  Cracow 
were  not  so  fortunate.  Either  they  were  unable  to  convey 
their  ammunition  across  the  frontier,  or  they  were  attacked 
so  immediately  after  crossing  that  they  were  not  in  a  posi- 
tion to  defend  themselves,  and  although  behaving  with  great 


224  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

courage,  were  obliged  to  fall  back  before  disciplined  troops. 
Sometimes  on  these  occasions  they  succeeded  in  burying 
their  arms,  more  often  they  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Aus- 
trians,  who  made  prisoners  of  them  as  they  retreated  in  con- 
fusion upon  the  frontier.  Such  was  the  fate  of  a  portion  of 
Gregovicz's  band,  which  was  attacked  so  close  to  Cracow 
that  the  firing  could  be  heard  in  the  town.  Unfortunately, 
as  I  left  the  same  day,  I  was  unable  to  go  to  the  frontier  to 
witness  the  skirmish,  which,  however,  though  it  resulted  in 
the  dispersion  of  the  band,  was  more  serious  in  its  results  of 
killed  and  wounded  to  the  Russians  than  to  the  Poles.  A  large 
city  naturally  possesses  greater  facilities  for  the  despatch  of 
a  band  than  the  country  villages;  but,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  Russian  troops  were  generally  collected  in  greater  num- 
bers on  the  frontier  in  the  neighborhood  of  Cracow  than 
elsewhere.  Bands  were  therefore  often  formed  at  other 
points,  but  here  greater  circumspection  was  required.  The 
men  were  lodged  in  farmhouses,  or  even  camped  in  woods, 
for  a  night  or  two  on  the  Galician  side. 

In  spite,  however,  of  every  precaution  and  of  the  most 
cunning  devices,  a  great  quantity  of  arms  were  constantly 
being  seized  in  transitu  by  the  Austrian  government ;  and 
it  was  calculated  that  it  was  necessary  to  add  a  sovereign  to 
the  price  of  every  rifle  or  musket  conveyed  in  safety  across 
the  frontier,  after  all  other  expenses  were  paid,  in  order  to 
cover  the  loss  sustained  by  those  intercepted.  It  is  al- 
most impossible  to  estimate  rightly,  unless  one  has  been 
upon  the  spot,  the  enormous  disadvantages  under  which  the 
insurgents  labored  in  being  deprived  of  any  safe  base  of 
operations.  They  were  perpetually  exchanging  the  frying- 
pan  for  the  fire.  The  position  of  an  Austrian  Pole  who 
took  part  in  the  movement  was  bad  enough,  but  that  of  the 
Russian  Pole  was  still  worse.  The  Austrian  who  had  been 
fighting  with  the  insurgents,  when  desiring  repose,  could  at 
least  return  to  his  home,  and  hope  to  remain  there  unmo- 
lested ;  but  the  Russian  no  sooner  found  himself  a  refugee  in 


POLISH    INSURRECTION  :    WARSAW.  225 

Cracow  than  he  had  to  scramble  across  the  frontier  into  the 
kingdom  for  safet}'.  I  have  conversed  with  some  who  be- 
longed to  Langiewicz's  army,  and  had  succeeded  in  reach- 
ing Cracow ;  here  they  were  lying  hidden,  afraid  of  being 
arrested  and  thrown  into  prison,  for  the  Austrian  govern- 
ment drew  a  broad  distinction  between  their  own  and  Rus- 
sian subjects.  The  latter  they  were  bound  by  the  conven- 
tion to  arrest,  if  not  to  give  up.  It  is  due  to  the  Austrians  to 
say  that  they  did  not  interpret  this  obligation  too  strictly: 
but  if  a  Russian  Pole  would  persist  in  living  in  Cracow,  he 
could  not  expect  unlimited  grace.  The  consequence  was, 
that  his  only  plan  was  to  put  his  head  back  into  the  lion's 
jaws,  and  make  the  best  of  his  way  to  the  nearest  insurgent 
band  in  the  kingdom  with  the  least  possible  delay.  Unfort- 
unately for  the  Poles,  although  they  have  shown  the  greatest 
aptitude  as  contrabandistas,  they  do  not  seem  to  possess  an 
equal  instinct  for  guerilla  warfare.  In  this  respect  their 
habits  are  French  :  they  like  fighting  in  masses,  they  glory  in 
the  rules  of  regular  warfare,  and,  with  a  strong  military  in- 
stinct and  unlimited  courage,  insist  upon  undertaking  opera- 
tions upon  a  larger  scale  than  the  conditions  under  which 
they  are  fighting  will  admit  of.  It  was  rare  to  find  a  chief 
who  could  resist  accessions  to  his  band,  which  at  the  very 
moment  possessed  neither  discipline,  ammunition,  nor  food; 
rarer  still  to  find  a  man  who  would  not  sacrifice  half  his 
band  for  the  glory  of  taking  a  couple  of  cannon,  which 
would  be  of  no  earthly  use  to  him  after  he  had  got  them. 
The  disastrous  attack  of  Miechow  was,  perhaps,  one  of  the 
most  painful  illustrations  of  this  blundering  style  of  warfare. 
The  insurgents  could  not  be  brought  to  understand  that  the 
great  object  of  guerilla  warfare  is  to  be  invisible  ;  that  vic- 
tories are  only  one  shade  less  disastrous  than  defeats,  be- 
cause you  cannot  afford  the  men  they  cost;  that  while  dis- 
cipline is  necessary  to  keep  a  band  in  order,  drill  is  abso- 
lute ruin  to  it,  because  the  men  will  immediately  fancy  them- 
selves soldiers  ;  that  excess  of  courage  is  a  positive  nuisance 
10* 


226  EPISODES   IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

where  you  want  to  teach  men  the  art  of  killing  others  with- 
out being  killed  themselves  ;  that  large  bodies  of  human  be- 
ings without  guns  are  only  food  for  the  artillery  of  the  enemy; 
whereas  if  the  whole  country  is  kept  alive  with  scattered 
guerillas,  their  artillery  arm  is  paralyzed,  for  you  give  them 
nothing  to  fire  at. 

Thus  there  was  an  absence  of  ingenuity  in  their  mode  of 
conducting  their  operations.  The  essence  of  partisan  war- 
fare is  mse,  but  very  little  strategy  was  displayed  ;  while  it  is 
due  to  the  insurgents  to  say  that  their  proceedings  were  al- 
ways characterized  by  the  utmost  humanity.  They  almost 
invariably,  after  depriving  their  prisoners  of  arms,  restored 
them  to  liberty ;  and  some  of  the  leaders  even  expressed 
horror  at  the  idea,  which  very  naturally  occurred  to  me,  that 
they  should  follow  our  example  in  the  Crimea,  and  choose 
the  Russian  Easter,  when  the  enemy  would  be  engaged  in 
celebrating  that  feast,  to  make  a  general  attack  upon  him.  I 
received  abundant  and  convincing  testimony  that  no  such 
scruples  of  humanity  animated  the  Russians,  who  committed 
atrocities  which  were  not  justified  by  the  exigencies  of  the 
situation,  and  who  could  not  complain  if  the  Poles  were 
driven  to  retaliative  measures,  as  severe  as  those  which  we 
inflicted  upon  the  rebels  during  the  Indian  Mutiny. 

Again,  the  desire  for  military  distinction  is  a  principle  so 
firmly  rooted  in  the  heart  of  every  Pole  that  it  sometimes  in- 
terferes with  his  love  of  country.  Not  only  does  the  leader 
despise  the  petty  achievements  to  which  a  guerilla  warfare 
should  be  confined,  and  from  which  he  cannot  acquire  re- 
nown ;  not  only  does  he  love  to  augment  his  band  even  at 
the  sacrifice  of  its  efficiency,  but  he  finds  it  difficult  to  hear 
of  the  success  of  rivals  without  a  certain  degree  of  jealousy : 
his  ambition  is  to  be  the  commander-in-chief  of  a  Polish 
army ;  and  although  this  struggle  had  been  the  means  of 
calling  forth  in  many  instances  a  display  of  magnificent  self- 
sacrifice,  and  neither  life  nor  liberty  were  considered  where 
the  interests  of  the  country  were  concerned,  there  could  be 


POLISH   INSURRECTION  :    WARSAW.  227 

no  doubt  that  a  danger  existed  of  personal  feelings  being  ex- 
cited among  the  leaders,  which  prejudiced  the  success  of  the 
cause  they  all  had  at  heart. 

I  crossed  the  Russian  frontier  at  two  points  while  at  Cra- 
cow, but  upon  neither  occasion  did  I  see  any  troops.  The 
nearest  barrier  was  Michaelowice,  and  here  there  was  a  mile 
or  so  between  the  Austrian  and  Russian  guardhouses.  At 
the  former  was  a  patrol,  and  we  were  a  good  deal  cross-ex- 
amined before  we  were  allowed  to  pass  it,  although  promis- 
ing to  limit  our  explorations  to  a  short  drive..  A  number  of 
peasants'  carts  laden  with  country  produce  was  all  we  met, 
and  my  curiosity  was  considerably  excited  as  we  approached 
the  Russian  barrier,  as  it  had  been  reported  that  the  enemy 
was  still  there.  However,  beyond  a  dirty  Jew  leaning  over 
the  bar  which  crossed  the  road,  and  a  few  mangy  curs,  the 
place  was  deserted.  Not  a  soul  inhabited  the  handsome 
block  of  building,  the  official  character  of  which  was  denoted 
by  the  imperial  eagle ;  the  windows  were  many  of  them 
broken,  and  all  was  silent  and  forlorn.  Taking  courage  from 
the  desolate  aspect  of  this  post,  we  ventured  on,  and  found 
ourselves  in  the  kingdom.  The  coachman  now  began  to 
think  that  we  had  gone  far  enough,  but  the  temptation  was 
too  great  to  turn  back  at  once,  and  we  continued  till  we 
reached  a  hill  from  which  we  obtained  a  good  view  of  the 
surrounding  country.  Not  a  Cossack  was  to  be  seen,  scarcely 
a  living  creature  ;  still  the  silence  might  be  treacherous,  so 
we  turned  back,  to  the  immense  relief  of  our  coachman, 
whose  speed  was  considerably  accelerated  until  he  found 
himself  once  more  safe  in  Galicia.  Practically,  travelling  in 
this  part  of  the  kingdom  was  impossible,  except  by  railway, 
and  then  it  was  uncertain.  Every  peasant  had  a  right  to 
stop  any  one  dressed  respectably  whom  he  might  chance  to 
meet,  and  bring  him  up  to  the  nearest  Russian  post.  One 
gentleman  whom  I  saw,  and  who  was  harmlessly  proceeding 
to  his  farm,  was  thus  arrested,  and  he  informed  me  that  the 
Russian  officer  blamed  his  captors  for  having  brought  him 


228  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE, 

in  alive.  They  were  informed  that  they  would  be  considered 
to  have  rendered  better  service  if  they  would  spare  the  Rus- 
sians the  responsibility  and  trouble  of  executing  persons. 
As  my  informant  could  under  no  pretext  be  considered  an 
insurgent,  he  was  allowed  to  go ;  but  so  unsafe  were  the 
streets  of  the  small  town  in  which  he  lived  during  its  occu- 
pation by  Russian  troops,  that  he  was  obliged  to  beg  two 
Russian  officers  to  accompany  him  across  the  road,  as  a  pro- 
tection from  their  own  men.  I  was  prevented,  from  the  ut- 
ter disorganization  of  the  Russian  army  upon  this  frontier, 
from  visiting  Miechow,  then  the  headquarters  of  General 
Szachowsky,  as,  although  I  might  have  obtained  a  safe-con- 
duct from  this  officer,  it  was  not  considered  by  the  Russians 
themselves  a  sufficient  protection.  Even  the  wives  of  Rus- 
sians employed  in  the  kingdom  were  removed  from  places 
likely  to  be  occupied  by  the  imperial  troops.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  this  insubordination  was  due  to  an  order  issued 
by  the  Grand-duke  Constantine  at  the  commencement  of  the 
outbreak,  in  which  the  men  were  enjoined  not  to  place  too 
much  confidence  in  their  officers.  It  seems  that  the  govern- 
ment had  some  reason  to  suspect  the  fidelity  of  the  latter; 
certainly  such  an  order  was  not  likely  to  confirm  it.  The 
result  was,  that  in  several  instances  officers  have  been  shot 
by  men  ;  and  the  account  which  Mr.  Bielski,  in  whose  veracity 
I  have  every  confidence,  gave  me  of  the  attack  upon  his  own 
country-house  at  Gibultow,  vividly  illustrated  the  utter  de- 
moralization of  the  Russian  army. 

It  would  appear  that  the  proximity  of  Langiewicz's  camp 
induced  four  of  the  insurgents  to  pay  him  a  visit,  the  more 
especially  as  his  own  son,  who  had  joined  the  army  of  the 
dictator,  was  of  the  number.  Mr.  Bielski,  who  had  a  wife 
and  daughter,  was  naturally  alarmed  at  such  dangerous  visit- 
ors, and  implored  them  not  to  prolong  their  stay,  as  it  was 
known  that  the  Russian  army  was  in  the  neighborhood :  how- 
ever, they  lingered  a  little,  and  were  just  preparing  to  start, 
when  a  number  of  Cossacks  and  infantry  were  seen  approach- 


POLISH    INSURRECTION  :   WARSAW,  229 

ing  from  all  sides.  The  first  impulse  of  Mr.  Bielski's  guests 
was  to  jump  upon  their  horses  and  escape;  this,  however, 
they  found  impossible,  A  gentleman,  unconnected  with  the 
insurgents,  who  was  a  visitor  in  the  house,  managed  to  jump 
into  a  bed  and  feign  illness,  the  others  endeavored  to  hide 
themselves  in  a  ravine.  Of  these  Mr.  Bielski's  son  alone 
eluded  the  vigilance  of  the  Russians,  who,  having  secured 
his  three  companions  as  prisoners,  now  approached,  in  order 
to  ransack  the  house.  Meantime  the  ladies  had  taken  refuge 
in  the  chapel,  where  they  were  praying,  while  Mr.  Bielski 
went  out  to  try  and  parley  with  the  officer.  As,  unfortunately, 
he  had  a  boil  on  his  face,  and  a  handkerchief  stained  with 
blood  round  it,  he  was  mistaken  at  first  for  a  wounded  in- 
surgent, and  the  officer  could  with  difficulty  prevent  the  Cos- 
sacks from  shooting  him.  Seeing  that  his  life  was  in  danger, 
he  hastily  retreated,  and  the  house  was  entered  by  two  offi- 
cers and  six  men.  Those  outside  clamored  furiously  for  the 
work  of  destruction  to  begin,  shouting  Rubac !  (pillage),  Re- 
zac !  (xwmiktx)^  Palic !  (burn);  and  for  more  than  an  hour 
did  the  horrified  inmates  listen  to  these  ominous  cries,  ex- 
pecting every  moment  that  the  officers  would  cease  to  have 
any  control  over  the  men.  Meantime  the  house  was  searched, 
the  six  Cossacks  filling  their  pockets  with  everything  that 
appeared  of  any  value,  and  utterly  disregarding  the  threats 
and  injunctions  of  the  officers.  The  gentleman  in  bed  was 
tQrned  out,  and  every  room  ransacked,  the  officers  apologiz- 
ing for  the  painful  task  which  was  forced  upon  them,  and  the 
impossibility  of  executing  it  in  any  other  way.  Ultimately, 
but  not  until  the  officers  had  threatened  to  shoot  the  men, 
one  of  whom  replied  that  his  carbine  also  contained  a  ball, 
they  were  induced  to  leave  the  house.  As  they  were  leaving, 
Mr.  Bielski,  who  felt  some  gratitude  to  the  officers  for  their 
endeavors  to  mitigate  the  ferocity  of  the  men,  offered  one  of 
them  cigars.  On  their  being  declined,  Mr.  Bielski  said,  ironi- 
cally, "  Why  do  you  refuse  them?  do  you  think  they  are 
poisoned  ?"    On  which  the  officer  answered, "  Had  they  been 


230  EPISODES    IN    A   LIFE   OF    ADVENTURE. 

poisoned,  I  would  gladly  have  smoked  one,  and  thus  relieved 
myself  from  any  more  of  this  hateful  work." 

A  violent  altercation  next  ensued  between  the  officers  and 
the  men  outside,  who  refused  to  take  charge  of  the  prisoners 
unless  they  were  first  allowed  to  plunder  the  house.  When 
at  last  the  latter  were  removed  into  the  high-road,  they  found 
a  certain  Mr.  Finkenstein,  who  was  a  British  subject,  and  a 
lady  in  a  cart,  surrounded  by  soldiers.  What  then  tran- 
spired I  had  from  the  lips  of  one  of  the  prisoners,  who  de- 
clared that  he  heard  an  officer  give  the  order  for  their  mas- 
sacre. Mr.  Finkenstein,  on  the  other  hand,  assured  me  that 
the  officer,  who  was  endeavoring  to  protect  him,  presented  a 
revolver  at  the  men  who  first  attacked  him  :  however  that 
may  be,  the  whole  party  were  attacked — three  of  the  Poles 
were  killed  on  the  spot.  My  informant,  after  receiving  thir- 
teen wounds,  managed  to  shelter  himself  under  Mr.  Finken- 
stein's  wagon,  out  of  which  Mr.  F.  was  dragged  and  left  for 
dead,  with  thirty-two  wounds,  the  lady  who  was  with  him 
having  been  stabbed  in  three  places. 

Another  history,  the  details  of  which  were  of  the  most  har- 
rowing description,  was  narrated  to  me  by  Mr.  Woyciachowski, 
whose  son  was  murdered  before  his  eyes,  but  that  has  already 
appeared  in  print.  Indeed,  there  was  no  lack  of  evidence  in 
Cracow  confirmatory  of  the  worst  accounts  we  read  at  the 
time  in  the  public  prints  of  the  barbarity  of  the  Russian  sol- 
diery. The  hotels  were  crowded  with  refugees,  all  of  whoiii 
had  some  instances  to  relate  ;  while  the  hospitals  were  filled 
to  overflowing  with  young  men,  not  merely  wounded  in  the 
ordinary  course  of  fighting,  but  often  covered  with  wounds 
they  received  after  having  been  captured  and  disabled.  Un- 
fortunately, the  length  of  the  interval  which  usually  elapsed 
between  the  time  when  the  wounds  were  inflicted,  and  when 
they  could  be  attended  to,  caused  them  in  a  very  undue  pro- 
portion to  terminate  fatally.  Not  a  day  passed  without  my 
being  attracted  to  the  window  by  the  mournful  chant  of  a 
funeral  procession,  winding  its  solemn  way  to  the  cemetery 


POLISH   insurrection:   WARSAW.  23 1 

outside  the  town,  one  portion  of  which  was  devoted  to  the 
interment  of  those  killed  for  the  national  cause.  Almost 
every  evening  I  met  in  that  gloomy  society  persons  who  had 
some  new  tale  of  distress  to  recount,  or  the  loss  of  some  near 
relative  or  friend  to  bewail.  Still  there  was  no  symptom  of 
flinching ;  those  who  were  recovering  from  their  wounds 
were  only  yearning  to  be  back  to  the  scene  of  action.  The 
hardships  they  had  undergone  could  not  deter  them  from 
seeking  to  rejoin  their  comrades  who  were  in  the  field  ;  and 
the  hotels  swarmed  with  ardent  young  men  either  just  re- 
turned from  camp  for  a  moment's  respite,  or  just  starting  to 
take  their  share  in  the  movement.  It  was  difficult  to  be  an 
indifferent  spectator  of  so  much  misery  and  so  much  de- 
votion. 

The  concentration  of  Russian  troops  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Cracow,  and  the  obstacles  in  the  way  of  despatching  bands 
from  that  city,  had  induced  the  insurgents  to  commence  op- 
erations upon  other  points  of  the  frontier,  so  I  went  to  Lem- 
berg  to  see  what  was  going  on  in  the  eastern  part  of  Galicia. 
A  ten  hours'  railway  journey  takes  one  to  this  outpost  of 
Austrian  civilization.  The  contrast  between  the  provincial 
capital  and  the  old  city  of  Cracow  is  sufficiently  marked. 
Containing  a  population  of  nearly  ninety  thousand  inhabit- 
ants, Lemberg  possesses  none  of  the  grand  historic  associa- 
tions of  Cracow,  and  can  boast  none  of  its  picturesque  effect. 
The  houses  are  large,  white,  palatial  structures,  the  shops  gay 
and  well  furnished,  the  streets  broad,  and  the  city  generally 
modern-looking  and  handsome.  In  Cracow  the  whole  world 
seemed  to  live  in  the  central  square  and  the  streets  running 
into  it.  Everybody  knew  everybody,  and  everybody  was  in 
the  movement:  nothing  else  was  thought  of  or  talked  of; 
youths  in  unmistakable  insurgent  costume  were  swarming 
everywhere,  and  the  committees  were  in  constant  delibera- 
tion. In  Lemberg  the  streets  were  busy  with  people  going 
about  their  usual  avocations.  For  all  that  a  stranger  could 
discover,  there  might  have  been  no  national  movement  in 


232  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

existence  :  except  the  predominant  black,  there  was  nothing 
to  indicate  Poland.  It  is  true  that  its  official  character 
obliges  a  number  of  Germans  to  live  at  Lemberg,  and  that 
the  large  garrison  may  give  a  greater  air  of  animation  to  the 
scene ;  but  one  felt,  on  walking  about  the  streets,  that  one 
had  got  out  of  the  movement.  Nevertheless  there  was  some- 
thing going  on,  and  arrangements  were  being  made  here  as 
at  Cracow  to  equip  bands. 

The  weather  was  so  bitterly  cold  during  the  period  of  my 
visit  to  Lemberg  that  the  camp  of  Lelewel,  which  I  had  in- 
tended visiting,  and  which  was  just  upon  the  other  side  of 
the  frontier,  in  the  Palatinate  of  Lublin,  was  dissolved.  It 
was  almost  impossible  to  keep  the  field  with  the  driving 
snow  and  piercing  wind,  which  seemed  to  penetrate  one's 
whole  system.  It  should  be  remarked,  that  the  dispersion 
of  a  band  by  no  means  implied  its  extinction.  When  either 
an  overwhelming  force,  inclement  weather,  or  the  absence 
of  supplies  or  ammunition,  rendered  it  impossible  for  a  band 
to  keep  the  field,  they  buried  or  concealed  their  arms;  and, 
if  in  the  neighborhood  of  Galicia,  crossed  the  frontier,  and 
rested  themselves  for  a  while,  or,  if  in  the  kingdom,  scat- 
tered temporarily,  but  only  to  reunite  at  a  given  rendezvous 
on  a  more  convenient  occasion.  Thus  at  Easter  numbers 
of  insurgents  went  home  and  spent  the  feast  with  their  friends 
and  relations ;  and  just  at  the  moment  of  my  visit  to  Lem- 
berg there  was  a  lull  in  affairs  in  consequence.  Al'ter  stay- 
ing a  few  days,  I  therefore  decided  upon  going  direct  to 
Warsaw,  and  proceeded  to  arrange  my  luggage,  in  antici- 
pation of  the  ordeal  to  which  I  understood  travellers  were 
subjected  on  entering  Russian  Poland.  I  was  reluctantly 
compelled  to  refuse  to  be  the  bearer  of  sealed  letters,  as  of 
course  the  only  safe  means  of  communication  between  Poles 
was  by  private  eiitremise;  and  they  were  so  skilled  in  con- 
cealing correspondence  that  the  Russians  seldom  succeeded 
in  intercepting  the  letters.  I  did  not  feel  the  same  confi- 
dence in  being  able  to  elude  the  vigilance  of  the  frontier 


POLISH   INSURRECTION  :   WARSAW,  233 

officials,  though,  had  I  possessed  my  subsequent  experience, 
I  need  not  have  been  so  prudent.  The  force  of  circum- 
stances had  obliged  the  Poles,  when  they  wrote  by  post  to 
each  other,  to  convey  their  political  intelligence  in  the  shape 
of  domestic  details,  so  cunningly  worded  that  they  possessed 
no  meaning  to  any  one  not  initiated  in  the  family  affairs,  and 
the  ideas  which  they  can  be  made  to  represent.  The  num- 
ber of  deaths,  funerals,  illnesses,  and  misfortunes  which  oc- 
casionally overtook  a  family,  would  appal  a  stranger  who 
read  the  letter,  and  did  not  know  that  these  domestic  afifiic- 
tions  were  only  fabricated  to  convey  news  of  national  dis- 
aster. 

As  the  through  trains  from  Cracow  to  Warsaw  had  ceased 
to  run,  I  was  obliged  to  pass  the  night  at  the  miserable  fron- 
tier station  of  Graniza,  where  a  gaunt  building,  inhabited  by 
a  deaf  old  woman  and  a  sulky,  barefooted  maid,  did  duty  for 
a  hotel,  and  where  my  evening  meal  consisted  of  junks  of 
ham  and  tea,  and  my  bed  of  a  very  narrow  stretcher,  with 
thickly-populated,  dirty  sheets.  Only  two  other  travellers 
were  in  the  train,  and  they  were  both  insurgents,  on  their 
way  from  a  camp  to  spend  Easter  at  home,  as  I  afterwards 
discovered.  None  of  us  had  any  difficulty  with  our  pass- 
ports, and  my  luggage  was  subjected  to  a  mere  formal  exam- 
ination. My  companions  dispensed  with  any  such  encum- 
brance, and  walked  about  the  platform,  on  which  a  company 
of  ill-favored  Russian  soldiers  were  drawn  up,  with  the  utmost 
effrontery. 

The  fact  that  insurgents  were  reported  to  be  hovering  about 
the  line,  that  they  had  already  interrupted  the  communication 
upon  several  occasions,  and  that  they  had  a  disagreeable 
habit  of  firing  upon  the  trains  as  they  passed  through  the 
dense  pine-woods,  invested  railway  travelling  in  Poland  with 
a  novel  sort  of  interest.  Only  three  days  had  elapsed  since 
the  bridges  destroyed  by  the  insurgents  had  been  repaired, 
and  we  did  not  know  that  we  might  not  find  some  new  inter- 
ruption established. 


234  EPISODES   IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

At  eight  o'clock  A.  M.  we  collected  on  the  platform.  When 
I  say  "we,"  I  mean  one  company  of  Russian  soldiers  who 
were  in  permanent  occupation  of  the  station ;  one  company 
who  mounted  the  open  fourth-class  carriages,  and  were  to 
be  considered  as  our  protectors;  an  officer  with  a  revolver, 
and  three  soldiers,  who  got  upon  the  engine  to  see  that  the 
engineers  and  firemen  did  not  play  tricks ;  the  two  above- 
mentioned  insurgents,  who  were  not  deterred  by  the  presence 
of  the  Russian  escort  from  going  to  Warsaw  to  see  their 
friends,  and  who  had  only  left  their  camp  two  days  before ; 
and  a  small  group  of  Polish  railway  officials,  who,  1  presume, 
had  no  more  idea  than  the  Russians  of  the  real  character 
of  their  passengers,  otherwise  they  would  have  insisted  upon 
asking  to  see  the  tickets  the  insurgents  had  no  money  to 
purchase;  for  we  will  not  do  them  the  injustice  of  insinuat- 
ing any  complicity  with  their  penniless  compatriots;  though 
the  chief  of  a  station  on  another  line,  I  won't  say  where,  did 
inform  me  that  he  could  take  ninety  guards  and  employees 
off  their  duty  at  any  moment,  and  make  a  band  of  insurgents 
of  them,  only  he  thought  they  were  more  useful  passing 
insurgents  up  and  down  the  line  under  the  noses  of  the  Rus- 
sian troops. 

With  a  puff  and  a  shriek  we  dashed  off  with  our  light 
freight  over  the  dreary  flat  country,  across  vast  open  plains 
thickly  dotted  with  habitations  and  with  peasants  tilling  the 
ground,  through  dark  woods,  across  marshes,  and  over  trestle- 
bridges,  till  we  got  to  a  station  where  another  company  of 
grim,  dirty,  Mongol-looking  soldiers  were  waiting  to  receiv^e 
us,  and  a  few  wild-looking  Cossacks,  with  horses  fastened  to 
trees  close  by,  were  lounging  about;  while  in  the  fields,  a 
few  hundred  yards  off,  pickets  were  posted — for  the  insur- 
gents like  dashing  suddenly  upon  isolated  stations  where  a 
company  of  men  may  be  surprised ;  then  they  have  been 
known  to  jump  into  the  train  and  make  it  take  them  up  or 
down  the  line  as  their  fancy  may  direct.  They  have  played 
all  sorts  of  pranks  on  the  railways;  hence  the  strong  guard, 


POLISH    INSURRECTION  :    WARSAW.  235 

consisting  of  seldom  less  than  a  hundred  men,  by  which 
each  train  is  accompanied.  The  spruce  officer,  with  spot- 
less uniform  and  patent-leather  boots,  looks  rather  out  of 
place  in  these  wild  regions,  and  in  command  of  these  wild, 
Tartar-looking  men;  and  we  cannot  wonder  that  sometimes 
they  will  not  obey  his  orders,  and  that  lady-passengers  do 
not  much  like  trusting  themselves  along  a  line  where  there 
is  more  to  be  feared  from  the  troops  who  protect,  than  from 
the  insurgents  who  threaten  it.  The  mayor  of  a  small  town 
sent  the  following  rather  characteristic  account  of  events 
which  transpired  in  his  arrondissement :  "At  twelve  o'clock 
on  such  a  day,"  he  reported,  "  '  the  destroyers  of  order '  (in- 
surgents) arrived;  they  took  so  much  flour,  so  much  brandy, 
so  many  pigs,  etc.,  for  all  of  which  they  paid,  and  they  then 
retired  :  and  at  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  the  same  day, 
'the  preservers  of  order'  (Russians)  arrived;  they  took  so 
much  flour,  so  much  brandy,  so  many  pigs,  etc.,  for  which 
they  did  not  pay  ;  they  then  burned  the  town  to  the  ground 
and  retired." 

At  every  station  there  is  the  same  smart  officer  and  the 
same  company  of  soldiers ;  two  or  three  times  between  the 
frontier  and  Warsaw  the  escort  is  changed,  and  as  we  pro- 
ceed more  passengers  get  in.  Every  soul,  man  or  woman, 
is  in  the  movement,  and  talks  about  it  freely;  they  hand 
photographs  of  celebrated  insurgents  about,  and  upon  one 
occasion  the  man  whose  likeness  was  being  discussed  was 
sitting  placidly  opposite,  and  did  not  attempt  to  conceal  from 
his  neighbors  that  he  was  the  very  individual  whose  figure, 
bristling  with  revolvers,  we  were  inspecting.  There  can  be 
no  greater  proof  of  the  unanimity  of  the  popular  sentiment 
than  the  mutual  confidence  which  all  classes  display  in  each 
other,  and  the  freedom  with  which  the  most  compromising 
topics  are  discussed.  When  surrounded  by  Russian  soldiers, 
insurgents  who  were  lounging  about  the  platforms  were  open- 
ly pointed  out  and  introduced  to  me.  I  felt  the  only  coward 
of  the  part}',  and  could  scarcely  believe  that  all  the  rest  of 


236  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE, 

the  people  who  were  in  the  secret  were  to  be  trusted.  Upon 
one  occasion  I  saw  the  insurgent  whom  we  had  recognized 
by  his  photograph  in  the  most  amicable  and  confidential 
conversation  with  the  Russian  ofificer  commanding  the  com- 
pany, and  was  laughed  at  for  excessive  caution  when  I  ex- 
pressed my  surprise  at  his  imprudence.  I  afterwards  learned 
that  no  fewer  than  three  thousand  insurgents  on  leave  from 
their  bands  had  arrived  by  the  three  different  railways  which 
centre  at  Warsaw,  to  spend  Easter  in  that  city,  and  that  so 
inefficient  were  the  police,  or  rather  so  much  implicated 
themselves  in  the  movement,  that  the  government  could  not 
lay  hands  on  any  of  them.  One  young  man,  who  had  been 
wounded  in  an  encounter  with  Russians,  was  actually  lying 
ill  of  his  wound  in  Warsaw,  and  being  attended  for  it  under 
the  nose  of  the  Russian  authority.  How,  upon  our  arrival 
at  Warsaw,  all  those  who  had  come  with  us  managed  to  get 
passports  which  should  satisfy  the  authorities,  was  a  mys- 
tery; but  my  friend  of  the  photograph,  who  had  never  from 
the  beginning  owned  a  ticket,  was  careering  along  trium- 
phantly in  a  cab  before  I  had  extricated  myself  from  the 
police  formalities. 

Before  the  government  adopted  the  plan  of  sending  escorts 
with  the  train,  it  was  stopped  one  day  by  the  insurgents, 
about  fifty  of  whom  availed  themselves  of  it.  As  it  ap- 
proached the  station,  the  engineer  perceived  that  the  author- 
ities had  got  some  suspicion  of  its  contents,  and  that  the 
platform  was  lined  with  troops.  There  was  still  time  to 
allow  the  occupants  to  creep  out  of  the  doors  on  the  opposite 
side,  and  hide  themselves  in  the  luggage-van.  This  opera- 
tion was  barely  accomplished  before  the  train  slowly  entered 
the  station.  No  suspicious  passengers  were  found  in  the 
carriages,  and  the  officer  was  at  a  nonplus,  when  it  occurred 
to  him  to  search  the  luggage-van.  No  sooner  did  the  en- 
gineer hear  the  order  given  than  he  quickly  attached  the 
van  to  the  engine,  and,  detaching  the  rest  of  the  train, 
steamed  down  to  get  water,  taking  the  luggage-van  with  him 


POLISH    INSURRECTION  :    WARSAW.  237 

as  if  by  mistake.  After  watering  the  engine,  he  was  obliged 
to  come  back  to  the  station ;  and  as  they  had  been  all  the 
time  in  sight  of  the  troops,  no  opportunity  had  been  afforded 
to  the  insurgents  to  escape.  Their  situation  was  becoming 
critical  as  they  re-entered  the  station;  but,  to  the  astonish- 
ment of  every  one,  the  guard  again  reattached  the  empty 
train,  and  off  it  went  at  full  speed.  No  sooner  did  the  train 
arrive  at  a  turn  which  hid  it  from  the  station,  than  the  van 
was  opened,  the  insurgents  jumped  out,  and  the  train  once 
more  entered  the  station  amid  a  general  volley  of  abuse,  the 
guard  accusing  the  engineer  of  stupidity,  the  engineer  laying 
the  fault  on  the  guard,  and  all,  secretly  amused,  indulging, 
for  the  benefit  of  the  Russians,  in  the  loudest  mutual  recrim- 
ination. 

Upon  another  occasion  the  line  had  been  destroyed  by 
the  insurgents,  and  a  party  of  engineers  were  sent  down  to 
repair  it.  In  the  day  they  worked  at  the  demolished  bridge, 
but  in  the  night  they  proceeded  to  another  bridge  farther  on, 
which  they  broke  down,  and  next  day  pointed  out  to  the 
Russians  what  they  pretended  had  been  a  fresh  work  of  the 
insurgents.  These  latter  naturally  aimed,  in  the  first  in- 
stance, at  supplying  themselves  with  funds  ;  and  two  or  three 
young  men  called  upon  an  official  one  day  to  hand  over  the 
treasure-chest  of  a  small  town.  As  they  were  too  few  in 
number  to  resort  to  force  and  make  a  tumult,  they  were 
rather  disconcerted  at  his  refusal,  and  were  going  away  with- 
out it,  when  he  called  them  back  and  said,  "  I  can't  give  you 
the  box  unless  you  present  a  pistol  at  my  head."  This  was 
done  at  once,  and  the  box  handed  over.  The  youths,  being 
inexperienced,  then  asked  him  for  the  keys,  which  he  also 
refused.  Here  was  another  puzzle;  and  the  good-natured 
official  was  actually  obliged  to  remark,  "  I  shall  certainly  not 
give  you  the  keys,  nor  can  you  get  the  money  unless  indeed 
you  break  open  the  lock."  In  this  fashion  did  the  Polish 
officials  of  the  Russian  government  serve  their  masters. 

The  air  seemed  heavy  with  suspicion  when  I  at  last  got 


238  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

away  from  the  station,  with  the  sort  of  feehng  of  having 
escaped  some  danger,  and  of  being  still  a  very  guilty  person- 
age. I  imagined  that  everybody  was  narrowly  examining 
me,  and  that  all  the  waiters  in  the  hotel  were  spies.  And 
when  I  drove  along  the  wide  streets,  crowded  with  foot-pas- 
sengers in  black,  and  met  here  and  there  a  patrol  of  Russian 
infantry,  or  a  few  Cossacks  with  ragged  ponies  and  long 
lances,  there  was  something  in  the  close  proximity  of  these 
antagonistic  forces  which  gave  me  the  same  sort  of  sensation 
I  once  experienced  in  America,  when  a  gentleman  informed 
me  that  the  barrel  upon  which  I  was  sitting  smoking  a  cigar 
contained  gunpowder. 

The  two  first  essentials  to  the  traveller's  comfort  in  War- 
saw were,  a  lantern,  and  a  permit  to  be  out  after  ten  o'clock 
at  night.  After  seven  the  streets  presented  a  most  singular 
aspect ;  everybody  was  compelled  to  carry  a  lantern,  and  the 
town  seemed  inhabited  by  a  population  of  lively  glow-worms. 
After  ten  o'clock  all  this  disappeared;  here  and  there  at  long 
intervals  a  stray  lantern  might  be  seen,  but  the  bearer  of  it 
carried  in  his  pocket  a  permit  to  be  in  the  streets  at  all  hours. 
Very  few  Poles  carried  these,  as  it  implied  too  great  a  famil- 
iarity with  the  Russian  authorities,  and  loyal  Poles  prided 
themselves  upon  not  having  sufficient  interest  to  obtain 
one. 

With  a  pair  of  colored  trousers  and  a  hat,  however,  one 
might  do  a  good  deal  without  a  permit,  as  no  native  would 
be  seen  in  either  the  one  or  the  other.  The  wearer,  there- 
fore, must  expect  black  looks  from  the  townspeople ;  but,  en 
revanche,  he  was  not  so  likely  to  be  molested  by  the  police. 
Upon  one  or  two  occasions  I  was  out  late  without  a  permit, 
but  escaped  observation  by  getting  into  the  deep  shadow 
when  any  one  passed.  I  found  several  people  doing  the 
same  thing:  they  were  apt  to  bolt  to  some  other  corner  on 
a  new  arrival,  and  it  became  quite  an  interesting  amusement 
to  dodge  about,  not  unlike  the  game  of  "post,"  the  usual 
forfeit  being  a  night  in  prison.     The  police,  however,  were 


POLISH   INSURRECTION  :    WARSAW.  239 

not  stricter  than  was  necessary  to  keep  up  appearances,  as 
they  were  all  in  the  movement :  one  of  them  informed  a 
friend  of  mine  that  the  muzzle  of  a  rifle  that  he  was  endeav- 
oring to  smuggle  home  beneath  his  greatcoat  was  visible 
above  the  collar,  and  he  had  better  hide  it  before  the  patrol 
came,  for  the  patrol  were  disagreeably  personal  in  their 
investigations,  particularly  when  they  were  not  sufficiently 
educated  to  read  the  permits. 

In  spite  of  all  their  endeavors,  the  united  exertions  of  the 
Grand -duke  Constantine,  General  Berg,  and  the  Marquis 
AVielopolski  were  incapable  of  suppressing  the  central  com- 
mittee, or  of  preventing  that  occult  body  from  governing,  not 
only  Warsaw,  but  Poland,  just  as  it  pleased.  It  made  use 
of  the  government  telegraph  for  the  transmission  of  its  in- 
formation, of  the  government  post-office  for  the  forwarding 
of  its  despatches,  of  the  government  machinery  for  the  pro- 
mulgation of  its  orders,  of  the  government  clerks  for  the  ob- 
taining of  official  information,  of  the  government  police  for 
carrying  out  its  secret  designs — in  fact,  of  everybody  in  Po- 
land, whether  in  government  employ  or  not,  except  the  Rus- 
sian army,  the  Marquis  Wielopolski,  and  the  peasants  of  some 
districts.  The  proclamations  of  the  central  committee  were 
freely  circulated,  and  passports  issued  by  it,  which  facilitated 
the  movements  of  the  stranger  anxious  to  visit  their  camps, 
but  involved  his  speedy  execution  if  they  were  discovered 
upon  him  by  the  Russian  soldiery.  I  therefore  declined 
burdening  myself  with  so  dangerous  a  document.  At  the 
period  of  my  visit,  among  other  proclamations  issued  by  the 
central  committee,  was  one  warning  the  people  against 
spurious  documents  emanating  from  the  Russian  government, 
but  which  purported  to  be  promulgated  by  the  central  com- 
mittee, and  to  which  a  stamp  in  imitation  of  the  one  used  by 
that  body  was  appended.  The  idea  of  the  authorities  in  re- 
sorting to  this  ruse  was  characteristic;  but  the  stamp  was 
badly  imitated,  and  though  for  the  moment  it  created  some 
little  confusion,  the  public  were  soon  on  their  guard  against 


240  EPISODES    IN    A    LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

similar  forgeries.  Another  announced  the  death  of  two  per- 
sons who  were  executed  as  spies  in  the  streets  of  Warsaw 
by  order  of  the  central  committee  ;  the  warrant  for  their  exe- 
cution was  found  pinned  upon  their  dead  bodies.  It  is 
probable  that  the  police  on  duty  at  the  time  looked  the  other 
way. 

Perhaps  the  most  remarkable  feature  of  the  whole  of  this 
movement  was  the  continued  existence  of  this  committee  for 
more  than  a  year,  in  spite  of  all  the  efforts  of  the  govern- 
ment to  suppress  it.  The  authority  it  wielded  over  the  Poles 
was  marvellous.  Every  order  was  executed  as  soon  as  it  was 
given,  and  it  possessed  the  confidence  of  the  country  so  com- 
pletely that  an  order  from  it  at  any  moment  would  have  sus- 
pended operations.  Many  are  the  stories  told  of  the  mys- 
terious working  of  this  secret  council.  Some  asserted  that 
it  consisted  really  of  only  one  man,  who  was  known  only  to 
two  other  men,  who  in  their  turn  were  known  to  four  others, 
and  so  on,  each  set  being  bound  not  to  reveal  the  particular 
link  in  the  chain  with  which  they  had  to  deal,  so  that  the  first 
man  would  be  unknown  to  the  four.  But  these  were  the  fa- 
bles with  which  wonder-loving  gossips  delighted  to  amuse 
strangers.  The  fact  is,  that  the  members  of  the  central  coun- 
cil were  very  well  known  to  a  great  number  of  persons,  and 
that  practically  it  was  merely  a  sort  of  upper  house  to  the  more 
active  and  intelligent  spirits  of  Warsaw,  who  discussed  in  pri- 
vate the  measures  to  which  the  central  committee  gave  effect. 
Latterly  the  aristocratic  element  predominated  in  its  coun- 
cils, and  there  was  probably  scarcely  a  single  individual  on 
the  committee  at  the  close  of  the  movement  who  was  on  it 
when  it  commenced.  This  was  not  on  account  of  any  wide 
divergence  of  opinion,  although  there  was  an  essential  differ- 
ence in  the  views  of  the  two  parties,  so  much  as  in  the  fact  of 
every  original  member  having  been  either  executed,  impris- 
oned, exiled,  or  obliged  to  join  an  insurgent  band.  The  odd 
thing  was,  that  there  was  no  difficulty  whatever  in  communi- 
cating with  it.     It  lived  nowhere,  but  was  to  be  found  every- 


POLISH   INSURRECTION:    WARSAW.  241 

where.  A  band  of  insurgents  having  occasion  to  take  some 
forage,  etc.,  from  a  peasant,  gave  him  an  order  for  payment 
on  the  central  committee.  He  being  as  ignorant  of  politics 
as  most  of  his  class,  came  into  Warsaw  and  asked  the  first 
person  he  met  which  was  the  way  to  the  central  committee : 
people  laughed  and  passed  on  ;  at  last  he  went  to  the  Rus- 
sian police  office  and  inquired  there,  ingenuously  remarking 
that  he  had  a  claim  on  it  for  some  money.  The  police  could 
give  him  no  assistance ;  but  requested  him,  should  he  ever 
find  the  committee,  to  come  back  and  tell  them  where  it  was. 
So  he  wandered  disconsolately  on  till  he  came  to  a  group  of 
persons  in  one  of  the  public  squares,  and  asked  one  of  them 
if  he  could  direct  him  to  the  central  committee.  The  gen- 
tleman he  addressed  took  him  at  once  up  a  by-street  and  in- 
quired his  reason  for  wishing  to  find  it,  on  which  the  peasant 
pulled  out  his  order  for  payment  for  forage  received  by  in- 
surgents. The  gentleman  immediately  took  the  order,  pulled 
out  his  purse,  paid  the  money,  and  made  the  man  put  his  mark 
in  pencil  to  a  formal  central  committee  receipt  which  he  had 
in  his  pocket.  Half  an  hour  later  a  body  of  police  were 
crossing  the  square  under  the  guidance  of  the  ungrateful  rus- 
tic, and  minutely  examining  the  by-streets ;  but  the  group  of 
persons  had  vanished,  and  the  gentleman  who  had  repre- 
sented the  central  committee  upon  the  occasion  was  nowhere 
to  be  seen. 

A  glacis,  about  half  a  mile  wide,  separates  the  city  of  War- 
saw from  the  citadel.  It  was  filled  to  overflowing  with  polit- 
ical prisoners,  and  every  morning  crowds  of  women  were  to 
be  seen  clustered  round  the  prison  doors,  who  had  brought 
comforts  to  their  relatives  and  friends,  with  whom,  by  special 
favor,  they  were  sometimes  permitted  to  communicate.  In 
the  event  of  a  popular  movement  in  the  city,  the  guns  of  the 
fort  could  lay  it  in  ruins  ;  but  it  would  not  offer  any  very 
formidable  resistance  to  the  siege  operations  of  a  regular 
army,  A  barrier  round  the  town  was  guarded  by  Russian 
sentries,  and  they  examined  minutely  the  passes  of  persons 
II 


242  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

who  might  wish  to  go  into  the  country  for  a  drive.  This  was, 
however,  a  luxury  very  rarely  indulged  in  by  the  inhabitants, 
partly  because  a  pass  was  not  a  very  easy  thing  for  a  Pole 
to  get,  and  partly  because  the  country,  even  close  up  to  the 
city,  was  by  no  means  safe.  The  insurgents  came  to  within 
two  or  three  miles  of  it,  and  Cossacks,  not  very  scrupulous 
in  their  treatment  of  harmless  wayfarers,  scoured  the  neigh- 
borhood. The  insurgents  themselves,  however,  found  very 
little  difficulty  in  going  in  and  out  of  the  town  as  they  pleased. 
The  sentries  were  all  to  be  bought,  and  in  the  night  could 
easily  be  induced  for  a  consideration  to  look  the  other  way 
while  their  enemies  were  passing  to  or  from  their  camps. 
Indeed,  so  ready  were  the  Russian  soldiers  to  provide  them- 
selves with  the  means  of  procuring  brandy,  that  they  willing- 
ly sold  their  ammunition  to  the  insurgents,  and  were  only  pre- 
vented from  selling  their  arms  as  well,  by  the  impossibility 
of  accounting  for  the  absence  of  them  to  the  mihtary  authori- 
ties. 

General  Berg  was  sent  expressly  from  St.  Petersburg  to 
assist  in  the  military  administration  of  Poland,  and  arrived 
in  Warsaw  about  the  same  time  as  myself.  He  is  reported 
to  have  said,  after  his  first  week's  experience  of  the  difficul- 
ties with  which  he  had  to  contend,  from  the  unanimity  among 
all  classes  of  Poles,  whether  employed  by  the  government  or 
not,  in  favor  of  the  movement,  that  there  was  only  one  other 
man  in  Warsaw  upon  whom  he  could  depend  beside  himself, 
and  that  this  was  the  Grand -duke  Constantine.  The  re- 
mark was  aimed  specially  at  the  Marquis  Wielopolski,  the 
civil  governor,  between  whom  and  General  Berg  an  intense 
jealousy  existed,  notwithstanding  the  fact  of  both  being  in- 
cluded in  an  order  from  St.  Petersburg,  which  commanded 
the  inhabitants  of  Warsaw  to  take  off  their  hats  whenever 
they  met  either  the  grand-duke,  Berg,  or  Wielopolski.  The 
poor  "  marquis,"  as  he  was  called,  par  excellence,  because  he 
was  the  only  noble  of  that  rank  in  Poland,  enjoyed  a  most 
unenviable  distinction  among  both  the  Russians  and  his 


POLISH    INSURRECTION  :     WARSAW.  243 

own  countrymen,  the  Poles.  The  former  distrusted  hun  be- 
cause he  was  a  Pole,  and  was  engaged  in  the  revoiution  of 
1830-1831;  the  latter  called  him  a  traitor,  and  the  author 
of  all  the  misery  which  had  latterly  fallen  upon  their  unhappy 
country.  It  was  sufficient  for  the  "  marquis  "  to  propose  a 
measure  to  insure  the  opposition  of  Berg ;  but  as  the  latter 
had  also  an  opponent  to  his  policy  in  the  grand-duke,  Wielo- 
polski  had,  in  the  long  run,  been  triumphant.  However  much 
it  was  to  be  regretted  that  the  most  remarkable  Pole  which 
this  century  has  produced  should  have  placed  himself  in  a 
false  position  with  reference  to  his  country,  we  are  bound  to 
accord  him  a  certain  qualified  admiration.  There  was  some- 
thing grand  in  his  imperturbable  stubbornness,  in  his  egre- 
gious self-sufficiency,  and  in  his  indomitable  courage.  In 
his  ponderous  figure,  massive  brow  and  chin,  and  shrewd 
eyes,  there  was  an  individuality  that  imposed  upon  those  who 
came  under  his  influence.  His  appearance  reminded  me  at 
the  same  time  of  Yeh  and  Cavour,  and  his  character  did  not 
belie  his  looks.  It  contained  about  equal  proportions  of 
the  Chinaman  and  the  Italian  ;  with  the  pride  and  obstinacy 
of  the  one  he  combined  the  finesse  and  intelligence  of  the 
other.  Stolid  and  reflective,  he  elaborated  a  policy  repug- 
nant to  his  country,  and  trusted  to  the  strength  of  his  will 
and  the  inflexibility  of  his  character  to  force  it  upon  the  na- 
tion ;  but  he  overestimated  his  power,  the  nation  refused  to 
bend,  and  Wielopolski,  too  proud  to  yield,  became  the  ser- 
vant of  Russia.  Phrenologically  speaking,  the  inordinate 
development  of  the  organ  of  self-esteem  neutralized  all  the 
grand  qualities  which  might  have  made  him  the  saviour 
and  the  blessing  of  his  country.  The  scheme  to  which  he 
sacrificed  his  own  reputation  and  his  country's  well-being 
was  a  vast  conception,  and  seems  to  have  been  suggested 
by  the  Galician  massacres  in  1846.  Then  it  was  that  he 
addressed  to  Prince  Metternich  a  celebrated  letter,  which 
ended  in  an  exordium  to  his  countrymen  :  "  We  must  take  a 
line.     Instead  of  the  irregular  and  haphazard  course  we  have 


244  EPISODES    IN    A   LIFE    OF   ADVENTURE. 

been  hitherto  pursuing,  we  must,  by  a  bold  stroke  which  may 
cause  our  hearts  to  bleed,  substitute  for  it  a  line  of  conduct 
which  is  safe,  and  which  is  marked  out  for  us  by  events," 
And  then  he  proposed  to  Poland  to  abdicate  its  pretensions 
as  a  distinct  nationality,  and  to  put  itself  at  the  head  of 
Sclavonia.  His  idea  was,  in  other  words,  that  the  superior 
moral  and  intellectual  resources  of  Poland  should  be  directed 
to  the  annexation  of  Russia — that  the  Poles,  identifying 
themselves  with  the  aspirations  and  aims  of  the  Sclavonic 
nationalities,  should,  as  their  most  civilized  representative, 
control  the  destinies  of  Eastern  Europe.  "The  nobility  of 
Poland,"  he  writes,  "will  surely  prefer  to  march  with  Russia 
at  the  head  of  a  Sclavonic  civilization,  young,  vigorous,  and 
with  a  great  future  before  it,  than  to  be  dragged,  jostled,  de- 
spised, hated,  and  insulted,  at  the  tail  of  a  decrepit,  intrigu- 
ing, and  presuming  civilization."  But  the  Poles,  however 
much  they  might  hate  Germany,  could  not  make  common 
cause  with  Russia  against  it.  They  still  clung  to  the  tradi- 
tions of  their  former  independence,  and  preferred  rather  to 
fight  single-handed  against  three  enemies,  than  to  identify 
themselves  with  one  in  the  hope  of  crushing  the  other  two. 
Wielopolski  was  too  enamoured  of  himself  and  his  plan  to 
abandon  it.  If  Poland  declined  to  found  Panslavonia,  Wielo- 
polski would  found  it  by  himself;  and  he  went  to  St,  Peters- 
burg to  take  the  preliminary  steps.  The  first  was  the  sub- 
jugation of  Poland  by  force,  as  argument  had  proved  of  no 
avail ;  and  in  order  to  carry  this  out  thoroughly,  he  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  named  the  governor  of  the  country.  Of 
course  he  found  himself  placed  in  a  position  of  direct  antag- 
onism with  the  whole  nation,  and  could  only  rely  on  Russian 
bayonets  to  give  effect  to  his  will.  This  he  never  scrupled 
to  do.  He  never  hesitated  to  trample  on  anything,  so  that 
he  could  keep  his  own  head  erect.  It  became  a  struggle  be- 
tween the  nation  and  the  man.  We  cannot  but  wonder 
whether  there  was  not  a  fiercer  struggle  going  on  within  the 
man  himself.     Did  he  never  feel,  now  that  he  had  laid  the 


POLISH    INSURRECTION  :    WARSAW.  245 

country  he  so  undoubtedly  loved,  prostrate  and  bleeding  at  his 
feet,  one  twinge  of  remorse  ?  Did  he  never  think  of  the  day 
when  he  fought  for  the  liberties  he  was  now  crushing,  when 
he  was  the  ambassador  to  England  of  the  same  people,  en- 
gaged in  the  same  struggle  that  they  were  now,  and  when  he 
pleaded  for  them  so  eloquently?  Did  he  never  inwardly 
curse  that  pride  of  his  nature  which  so  blinded  and  hardened 
him  that  he  thought  he  could  change  the  aspirations  of  a 
nation,  and  did  not  shrink  from  massacring  them  when  he 
failed  ?  Unfortunately,  Wielopolski  had  not  been  long  in 
Warsaw  before  his  amour propre  became  involved  in  another 
direction.  He  had  assured  the  emperor  that  he  understood 
the  Poles,  and  could  govern  the  country  ;  but  every  day  was 
proving  the  contrary,  and  the  imminence  of  an  outbreak 
threatened  altogether  to  destroy  his  credit  and  his  prestige. 
Then  it  was  that  he  proposed  the  Conscription  Act  in  the 
dead  of  winter.  No  wonder  his  countrymen  called  him 
traitor.  And  they  were  right.  A  man  who  will  not  sacrifice 
his  own  pride  to  the  good  of  his  country  is  a  traitor — not, 
perhaps,  in  the  worst  sense,  but  in  one  equally  fatal  to  the 
cause  he  ought,  if  necessary,  to  die  for.  And  Wielopolski 
would  have  died  sooner  than  give  in  ;  so  he  clung  to  War- 
saw, and  drove  about  the  streets  surrounded  by  a  Russian 
escort  to  protect  him  from  the  bullets  of  his  countrymen. 

Notwithstanding  the  rigorous  measures  adopted  by  the 
Russian  government,  and  the  stringency  of  the  rules  to  which 
everybody  was  obliged  to  conform  in  Warsaw,  there  was  an 
entire  freedom  in  the  expression  of  opinion.  It  is  only  be- 
fore a  popular  outbreak,  when  public  feeling,  seething  and 
fermenting,  has  not  yet  found  a  vent,  that  people  are  afraid 
to  speak.  When  the  surface  is  still  calm,  any  solitary  indi- 
vidual venturing  to  express  an  opinion  is  at  once  seized,  so 
that  it  is  generally  difficult  beforehand  to  predict  a  revolution. 
There  is  always  a  moment  of  lull,  and  the  police  are  doubly 
active,  while  the  masses  are  nerving  themselves  silently  for 
the  final  effort.    No  sooner  is  that  made  than  the  tongues  of 


246  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF    ADVENTURE. 

the  most  prudent  are  loosened.  In  proportion  as  the  prisons 
are  filled,  and  arrests  increase,  do  men  become  reckless,  until 
the  government  gives  up  in  despair  the  attempt  to  control 
the  freedom  of  speech.  When  one  common  sentiment  ani- 
mates a  whole  population,  and  each  individual  is  determined 
to  express  it,  imprisonment  becomes  impossible.  Thus  it 
happened  that  treason  and  revolution,  so  far  as  Russia  was 
concerned,  were  openly  talked  in  Warsaw ;  spies  were  of  but 
little  avail,  because  they  would  have  been  obliged  to  report 
everybody  in  the  town  for  the  same  offence.  But  the  office 
of  a  spy  was  not  coveted  ;  even  Jews  were  not  to  be  bribed. 
The  police  of  the  central  committee  was  so  much  more  effi- 
cient than  that  of  the  Russian  government,  that  sooner  or 
later  the  doom  of  a  spy  was  certain.  So  far,  then,  as  the 
liberty  of  discussing  openly  the  situation  was  concerned, 
there  was  no  difficulty.  Every  one  was  glad  to  give  a  stran- 
ger the  benefit  of  his  patriotic  opinions.  The  Warsaw  so- 
ciety met  at  each  other's  houses ;  triumphed  over  the  news 
of  victories  gained  by  insurgents ;  mourned  over  defeats  ; 
anathematized  Russia  in  general,  and  Berg  and  Wielopolski 
in  particular ;  canvassed  the  probabilities  of  aid  from  without, 
and  the  expediency  of  the  policy  to  be  adopted  by  the  cen- 
tral committee.  It  was  strange  to  be  in  a  room  with  thirty 
or  forty  persons,  all  of  whom  were  uttering  sentiments  which 
would  have  infallibly  consigned  them  to  Siberia  if  they  had 
been  heard  by  a  Russian  ;  and  yet  so  thoroughly  confident 
of  each  other  that  no  man  hesitated  to  say  exactly  what  he 
thought;  and  interesting  to  observe  the  phases  of  character 
as  indicated  by  the  nature  of  the  views  expressed — some  so 
sanguine  of  the  power  of  the  internal  forces  at  work  that  they 
were  comparatively  indifferent  to  foreign  intervention  ;  others 
so  earnestly  anxious  for  an  indication  from  any  Western 
power  of  a  disposition  to  take  up  their  cause;  some  gloomy 
and  despondent  of  the  whole  affair;  some  alarmed  at  the 
strong  infusion  of  the  middle-class  element,  to  which  the 
movement  owed  so  much  of  its  force ;  all  interested  in  hear- 


POLISH   INSURRECTION:    WARSAW.  247 

ing  what  impression  a  stranger  had  received,  and  in  discov- 
ering what  he  considered  to  be  their  ultimate  chances  of 
success. 

It  was  indeed  difficult  for  a  traveller  to  arrive,  on  such 
short  notice,  at  any  definite  conclusion  ;  but  no  one  could 
be  long  in  the  country  without  perceiving  that  one  ingredient 
most  essential  to  a  successful  revolution  was  wanting.  The 
leading  spirit  had  not  appeared — the  movement  had  not  yet 
found  a  living  representative.  For  a  moment,  persons  look- 
ing on  from  abroad  expected  to  find  in  Langiewicz  a  second 
Garibaldi,  but  Poland  did  not  produce  either  a  Garibaldi  or 
a  Cavour,  The  central  government  at  Warsaw  proved  it- 
self a  most  admirably  contrived  machine  for  the  manage- 
ment of  internal  affairs,  but  the  wisdom  of  its  measures  was 
not  in  proportion  to  the  adroitness  which  was  exhibited  in 
carrying  out  its  organization.  To  make  it  effective  it  should 
have  been  the  tool  of  one  man,  and  he  a  man  of  consummate 
genius.  In  supreme  moments,  if  the  ship  is  to  weather  the 
storm,  it  must  be  steered  by  one  hand  and  one  head  ;  and  it 
does  not  seem  that  there  was  any  political  leader  of  surpass- 
ing ability,  who,  by  means  of  the  central  committee,  governed 
the  country.  Hence  the  very  composition  of  the  national 
government  underwent  change,  and  there  was  not  that  con- 
sistency and  decision  in  its  policy  which  would  have  given 
confidence  had  it  been  under  the  guidance  of  one  man. 

Hitherto  my  observations  had  been  confined  to  the  men 
of  council.  I  now  wished,  before  leaving  the  country,  to  see 
the  men  of  action  at  work  in  the  field. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

A   VISIT   TO   AN   INSURGENT   CAMP. 

Scarcely  a  week  had  elapsed  after  my  arrival  at  Warsaw 
before  the  opportunity  w,hich  I  had  so  long  desired,  and  had 
vainly  attempted  to  find  in  Galicia,  presented  itself  of  visit- 
ing a  camp  of  insurgents.  I  therefore  got  my  passport  vised, 
as  though  I  were  going  to  leave  the  country  altogether,  and 
went  through  the  usual  police  formalities  which  were  neces- 
sary for  that  purpose  ;  then  I  took  a  ticket  for  Berlin,  and 
bade  adieu  to  Warsaw,  without  exciting  any  suspicion.  After 
travelling  a  few  hours  we  arrived  at  a  station  too  small  and 
lonely  for  the  Russians  to  care  to  defend  it  with  the  usual 
company  of  soldiers.  My  companion  was  a  Polish  gentle- 
man, who  did  not  take  so  much  trouble  to  disguise  our  des- 
tination as  I  could  have  wished ;  and  there  was  probably 
scarcely  a  passenger  that  saw  us  alight  who  did  not  guess 
where  we  were  going.  A  light,  open,  country  cart,  without 
springs,  but  plentifully  provided  with  straw,  and  drawn  by  a 
pair  of  spirited  young  horses,  jolted  us  first  along  a  rough 
road,  then  through  a  small  town  inhabited  entirely  by  Jews, 
where  greasy -looking  women  inspected  the  heads  of  their 
progeny  in  the  sun,  and  their  fathers,  in  long  coats,  long 
beards,  and  long  curled  locks,  smoked  long  pipes  in  all  the 
luxury  oi  dolce  far  niente ;  for  this  was  their  Sabbath.  Then 
we  dived  into  a  pine-and-birch  wood,  dexterously  threading 
our  way  between  the  trees — for  there  was  no  road — and  so 
again  out  into  the  open,  till  we  came  to  a  most  picturesque 
old  chateau,  with  "  bridge,  and  moat,  and  donjon  keep  ;"  but 
prudence  prevents  my  describing  it  so  accurately  as  I  could 


A   VISIT   TO   AN    INSURGENT   CAMP.  249 

wish,  for  fear  of  compromising  my  host.  The  camp  we  had 
expected  to  find  in  the  neighborhood  had  moved,  so  we  de- 
termined to  drive  on  and  spend  the  night  at  a  country-house 
about  fifteen  miles  distant.  My  host  could,  indeed,  not  offer 
me  very  much  hospitality,  as  he  found  that,  during  his  absence 
in  Warsaw,  nearly  all  his  servants  had  disappeared  and  joined 
the  insurgents ;  his  cook  was  at  this  moment  exercising  his 
culinary  talents  for  the  benefit  of  a  band  ;  his  groom,  mounted 
on  one  of  his  master's  best  horses,  was  perhaps  chasing  a 
Cossack,  while  the  footman  might  be  leading  a  body  of 
scythemen  on  to  glory.  However,  the  coachman  had  re- 
mained, being  an  elderly  individual,  with  a  wife  and  family. 
It  was  twilight  ere  we  were  en  route,  this  time  in  a  civilized 
landau,  which  needed  four  strong,  well-bred  horses  to  drag  it 
along  the  deep,  sandy  roads.  We  kept  a  bright  lookout  for 
Cossacks  as  the  shades  of  evening  closed  in  upon  us ;  but 
latterly  the  insurgents  had  taken  so  much  to  night-work,  that 
the  Cossacks  preferred  staying  at  home  to  incurring  the  risk 
of  meeting  them,  so  that  we  felt  pretty  safe,  and  arrived,  with- 
out any  other  incident  than  one  or  two  false  alarms,  at  our 
journey's  end  just  as  the  family  were  going  to  bed.  Their 
astonishment  at  the  arrival  of  an  English  traveller  on  so 
strange  an  errand  soon  gave  place  to  the  rites  of  hospitalit)'', 
and  before  going  to  bed  the  programme  for  the  following 
day  was  already  arranged.  My  new  host  was  a  small  coun- 
try gentleman,  too  devoted  to  his  farm  and  his  country's 
cause  to  take  refuge,  like  many  of  the  larger  landed  pro- 
prietors, in  Warsaw.  His  wife  was  a  genuine  specimen  of  a 
Polish  woman,  enthusiastically  patriotic,  high-couraged,  self- 
sacrificing,  and  energetic  in  giving  aid  and  encouragement  to 
the  insurgents.  Though  living  in  the  midst  of  a  perpetual 
scene  of  guerilla  warfare,  and  liable  at  any  moment  to  be 
subjected  to  outrages  such  as  those  which  she  believed  had 
already  been  perpetrated  on  her  countrywomen  by  the  Rus- 
sian soldiery,  she  showed  no  symptom  of  flinching  or  desert- 
ing her  post.  Already,  upon  several  occasions,  at  all  hours 
II* 


250  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE    OF   ADVENTURE. 

of  the  day  and  night,  her  house  had  been  invaded  by  Cos- 
sacks, who  only  abstained  from  massacre  and  pillage  because 
no  evidence  could  be  discovered  of  complicity  with  the  in- 
surgents. Fortunately  the  house  lay  a  little  distance  off  the 
high-road,  and  was  therefore  often  passed  unperceived  by  the 
JR-Ussian  marauding  parties  :  but  the  occupants  could  never 
feel  themselves  safe  ;  and  as  every  day  brought  tidings  of 
unsuspecting  families  falling  victims  to  the  rapacity  and  lust 
of  a  disorganized  soldiery,  the  chances  of  this  unprotected 
little  mansion  escaping  seemed  diminished.  It  was,  indeed, 
little  better  than  a  farmhouse,  and  consisted  of  only  one 
story;  but  it  was  surrounded  by  a  well -stocked  steading, 
and  fields  that  bore  evidence  of  a  m^aster's  eye  and  careful 
cultivation.  In  one  direction  a  long,  unbroken  line  of  dense 
pine  forest  shut  out  the  horizon  :  in  the  other,  sandy,  undulat- 
ing downs  stretched  away  indefinitely.  The  scenery  would 
have  been  tame  and  uninteresting,  were  it  not  that  its  wild, 
desolate  character  gave  it  a  peculiar  charm:  this  was  height- 
ened by  the  circumstances  under  which  we  saw  it.  A  soli- 
tary horseman  appearing  upon  the  distant  landscape  caused 
as  much  sensation  in  the  household  as  a  suspicious-looking 
craft  in  the  West  Indian  seas  would  to  a  Spanish  galleon  in 
the  days  of  Kidd.  There  was  a  constant  succession  of  emo- 
tions; and  I  thought  my  hostess  must  have  been  endowed, 
in  the  first  instance,  with  strong  nerves,  to  have  been  able  to 
undergo  the  constant  wear  and  tear  to  which  she  was  daily 
subjected.  An  ardent  devotion  to  the  cause,  and  a  plentiful 
indulgence  in  large,  strong  cigars,  however,  sustained  her 
through  the  various  exciting  events  by  which  her  life  was 
checkered.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  constant  prox- 
imity of  danger  at  last  renders  one  callous  to  it,  and  that 
by  a  providential  arrangement  the  nervous  system  becomes 
so  accustomed  to  tension  where  it  is  sufficiently  protracted, 
that  in  the  end  it  ceases  to  suffer  from  it.  I  sat  up  till  a  late 
hour  listening  to  "  the  sensation  anecdotes  "  which  formed 
the  staple  of  my  host's  conversation — stories  of  the  robbery 


A   VISIT   TO   AN    INSURGENT   CAMP,  25 1 

and  pillage  of  neighboring  houses  by  Russians,  of  deeds  of 
heroism  performed  by  individual  insurgents,  of  skirmishes 
which  had  already  taken  place,  and  of  those  which  were 
daily  anticipated  ;  of  friends  who  had  been  arrested,  of  oth- 
ers who  had  joined  bands,  of  others  who  were  killed  or 
wounded  ;  of  the  movements  of  the  insurgents,  of  farms  vis- 
ited, of  horses  taken,  of  peasants  hung,  of  arms  concealed; 
of  every  variety  of  incident  with  which  such  exciting  times 
must  necessarily  abound.  It  was  long  past  midnight  before 
I  sought  the  detached  building  which  contained  my  bed- 
room. As  I  crossed  the  lawn  the  sound  of  a  distant  chorus 
fell  faintly  upon  my  ear,  I  stopped  to  listen.  It  was  a 
bright,  calm,  moonlight  night,  and  for  a  moment  all  was  pro- 
foundly silent ;  then  gradually  the  swelling  strains  of  the 
magnificent  Polish  national  anthem  broke  the  stillness  for  a 
moment,  and  died  away  again  in  the  extreme  distance.  We 
had  to  listen  intently  to  catch  the  notes  ;  but  it  was  evident 
that  many  voices  joined  in  that  midnight  chant;  and  as  the 
sounds  grew  fainter,  we  found  that  they  were  not  stationary. 
It  was,  in  fact,  a  body  of  mounted  insurgents  on  a  midnight 
raid ;  and  as  at  the  moment  the  nearest  Russian  force  was 
supposed  to  be  at  least  four  miles  off,  they  were  beguiling  the 
way  by  almost  the  only  song  a  Pole  ever  sung  in  those  days 
— the  prayer  for  the  deliverance  of  his  country.  I  thought, 
nevertheless,  that  the  proceeding,  though  most  romantic  in 
its  effect,  was  somewhat  rash,  and  was  confirmed  in  this  im- 
pression by  the  next  sound  which  broke  the  nocturnal  si- 
lence, and  which  was  nothing  less  than  the  sharp  report  of  a 
rifle.  To  a  person  not  accustomed  to  them,  it  must  be  ad- 
mitted that  these  were  somewhat  disturbing  influences  under 
which  to  court  repose  ;  however,  the  day  had  been  a  long 
and  an  eventful  one,  so  exhausted  nature  soon  triumphed 
over  every  other  sentiment,  and  I  fell  asleep  while  vainly  en- 
deavoring to  keep  awake  and  listen  for  the  report  of  another 
shot. 

Breakfast  is  almost  as  substantial  a  meal  in  Poland  as  it 


252  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

is  in  England,  and  the  disturbed  state  of  the  country  did  not 
prevent  my  hosts  from  loading  the  table  with  most  excellent 
fare.  The  master  of  the  house  was  in  a  condition  to  do  full 
justice  to  it,  for  he  had  already  made  a  pilgrimage  to  the 
camp  to  prepare  the  way  for  my  visit.  It  was  indeed  neces- 
sary that  the  band  should  have  some  information  as  to  my 
object  and  intentions,  for  in  spite  of  the  severe  measures 
adopted  by  the  insurgents,  there  are  spies  in  every  form  and 
under  every  guise,  against  whom  they  are  constantly  on  their 
guard ;  and  it  was  some  time  after  my  arrival  before  even  my 
hostess  could  divest  herself  of  some  suspicion  as  to  my  real 
character.  It  chanced  to  be  Sunday,  and  a  number  of  peas- 
ants came  on  their  way  to  church  to  pay  their  respects  to 
their  master.  They  were  fine,  stalwart  men,  with  long  coats, 
big  boots,  round  caps  trimmed  with  fur,  and  honest,  cheery 
faces,  not  by  any  means  devoid  of  intelligence.  Their  mode 
of  salutation  is  to  touch  the  ground  at  your  feet  with  their 
caps.  They  looked  with  considerable  interest  at  the  English 
traveller  who  had  come  to  this  out-of-the-way  spot  to  see 
what  was  going  on.  Nor  did  my  host  neglect  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  the  circumstance,  and  instance  it  as  a  proof  of 
the  sympathy  which  England  felt  for  the  cause  of  Polish  in- 
dependence. I  asked  the  most  intelligent-looking  among 
them  why  he  had  not  joined  the  insurgents?  He  answered, 
with  a  sly  look  at  his  master,  "  Because  my  master  has  not. 
When  my  master  does,  I  will."  From  what  I  could  gather, 
the  peasants  of  this  part  of  the  country  were  not  indisposed 
towards  the  insurrection  ;  but  they  had  been  too  long  accus- 
tomed to  regard  the  power  of  Russia  with  an  awe  amount- 
ing almost  to  superstition,  to  venture,  at  the  outset  of  the 
movement,  to  set  it  at  defiance.  It  was  only  natural  that 
they  should  feel  no  very  keen  interest  in  the  success  of  a 
cause  which  would  produce  no  immediate  material  change 
in  their  condition.  It  is  not  until  a  man  becomes  more  or 
less  educated  that  he  knows  the  difference  between  one  form 
of  government  and  another;  but  whether  the  seat  of  govern- 


A   VISIT   TO   AN    INSURGENT   CAMP.  253 

ment  be  St.  Petersburg  or  Warsaw,  and  whether  the  head  of  it 
be  a  Russian  emperor  or  a  Polish  king,  makes  very  httle  dif- 
ference to  the  rustic,  who  would  be  at  the  tail  of  the  same 
plough,  driving  along  the  same  furrow,  whoever  was  the  su- 
preme authority.  The  only  questions  which  touch  persons 
of  this  class  are  those  connected  with  religion  or  with  prop- 
erty. A  peasant  will  be  profoundly  indifferent  whether  he 
is  under  a  responsible  or  an  irresponsible  government ;  but 
when  it  comes  to  making  the  sign  of  the  cross  with  three  fin- 
gers or  with  two,  he  enters  keenly  into  the  question  at  once. 
Thus  in  Samogitia  and  other  parts  of  Lithuania  the  peasants 
were  the  prime  movers  of  the  insurrection,  because  they  were 
compelled  to  become  members  of  the  Russian  Greek  Church, 
and  to  abandon  the  United  Greek  persuasion,  to  which  they 
originally  belonged.  As  they  were  pagans  only  three  hun- 
dred years  ago,  they  were  the  more  tenacious  upon  the  point, 
and  had  taken  advantage  of  the  movement  in  Poland  to  rise 
all  through  the  provinces.  Russia  had  lately  succeeded  in 
exciting  some  of  the  Greek  dissenting  sects  to  attack  the 
Roman  Catholic  proprietary,  and  had  inaugurated  a  system 
oi Jacquerie,  which  had  been  productive  of  the  most  frightful 
results  in  Lithuania  and  the  provinces.  That  this  policy  of 
annihilation  emanated  from  the  highest  sources,  is  proved  by 
the  following  paragraph  contained  in  the  instructions  issued 
by  the  czar  to  General  MouraviefT:  "His  excellency  should 
take  every  opportunity  of  acquainting  the  peasants  with  the 
paternal  intentions  of  the  czar  towards  them,  and  of  demon- 
strating that  the  landowners  are  their  enemies  and  oppress- 
ors. If  his  excellency  considers  it  advisable,  he  can  also 
furnish  arms  to  those  among  the  peasants  who  are  attached 
to  the  czar  and  to  Russia."  In  other  words,  having  demon- 
strated to  the  peasant  who  were  his  natural  enemies  and  op- 
pressors, he  was  provided  by  a  considerate  government  with 
the  means  of  exterminating  them  from  off  the  face  of  the 
earth,  and  encouraged  to  do  so  by  the  prospect  of  plunder 
which  this  process  would  insure  to  him. 


254  EPISODES   IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

In  the  kingdom  of  Poland,  where  the  tenure  of  land  is  not 
the  same,  and  the  peasants  are  already  proprietors  of  the 
soil,  the  government  could  not  hold  out  the  same  temptation 
to  them  to  murder  their  masters.  In  fact,  the  national  gov- 
ernment had  outbid  the  czar  in  an  attempt  to  secure  the 
good-will  of  the  peasantry  ;  for  whereas  the  latter  had  been 
obliged  to  pay  into  the  imperial  treasury  a  certain  propor- 
tion of  their  profits,  to  be  accumulated  into  a  sum  for  the  re- 
demption of  the  land  which  formerly  belonged  to  the  nobles, 
and  out  of  which  they  were  to  receive  compensation,  the 
national  government  proclaimed  that  this  obligation  was  no 
longer  binding  upon  the  peasant,  who  would  thus  become  a 
landowner  without  ever  having  paid  for  his  property.  The 
struggle  between  the  Poles  and  the  Russian  government  for 
the  good-will  of  the  rural  population  began  with  the  Agri- 
cultural Society,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  efforts 
of  that  body,  and  the  subsequent  policy  pursued  by  the 
national  government,  did  much  to  conciliate  this  large  and 
important  section  of  the  population. 

For  example,  the  hostility  of  the  peasants  to  the  national 
movement  in  the  district  I  was  now  visiting  had  been  loudly 
insisted  upon  by  the  few  persons  I  had  met  who  were  them- 
selves indifferent  to  the  cause  of  Polish  independence  ;  but 
we  received  practical  evidence  to  the  contrary  when  our  ar- 
rangements for  visiting  the  camp  were  completed.  As  some 
friends  from  a  neighboring  country  -  house  were  expected  to 
come  and  spend  the  day,  we  delayed  in  the  hope  of  their 
joining,  and  finally  started  in  four  light,  open,  country  carts, 
each  drawn  by  four  horses,  for  the  recesses  of  the  forest, 
which  rose  in  a  sombre  mass  upon  the  distant  margin  of  the 
cultivated  plain. 

It  was  not  to  be  supposed  that  we  could  thus  ostentatious- 
ly depart  without  every  servant  in  the  house  being  aware  of 
our  destination  ;  indeed,  there  was  a  flutter  and  excitement 
in  their  movements  which  plainly  showed  the  interest  they 
felt  in  the  expedition.     The  coachman   looked  eager  and 


A   VISIT   TO   AN    INSURGENT   CAMP.  255 

self-satisfied,  and  there  was  quite  a  group  collected  to  see  us 
off.  With  the  loud  cracking  of  whips  our  primitive  cortege 
dashed  off  along  the  sandy  roads.  There  were  no  less  than 
seven  ladies  of  the  party,  looking  brave  and  animated,  for 
the  expedition  was  a  novelty  even  to  them.  Notwithstand- 
ing the  constant  proximity  of  insurgent  camps  for  months 
past,  upon  no  former  occasion  had  any  of  them  ever  ven- 
tured to  visit  one.  Now  their  eyes  sparkled  and  their  faces 
flushed,  as  they  felt  the  risk  they  were  incurring,  and  cal- 
culated the  chances  of  a  safe  return.  We  passed  through 
two  populous  villages,  every  man  and  woman  in  which  knew 
where  we  were  going,  and  ran  to  see  us  pass  ;  and  any  of 
whom  would  have  received  a  large  reward  had  they  carried 
the  intelligence  to  a  Russian  force  of  six  thousand  men, 
quartered  in  a  town  not  five  miles  distant.  Had  they  done 
so,  and  had  we  encountered  a  party  of  Cossacks  on  our  way 
back,  the  murder  of  every  member  of  the  party  was  a  moral 
certainty. 

Even  the  men  did  not  feel  quite  comfortable  at  the  possi- 
bility of  such  a  contingency,  and  could  only  express  their  be- 
lief in  the  loyalty  and  affection  of  the  peasants.  When  it  is 
remembered  that  these  latter  were  invested  with  the  functions 
of  police,  and  were  actually  liable  to  be  severely  punished 
for  not  informing  against  us,  it  cannot  be  said  that  the  rural 
population,  in  a  district  where  they  had  the  reputation  of 
being  most  hostile,  were  so  very  decidedly  opposed  to  the 
movement. 

At  last  we  arrived  at  the  outskirts  of  the  wood,  and  came 
to  a  farmhouse,  U'here  the  proprietor,  a  sort  of  gentleman- 
farmer,  was  waiting  to  be  our  guide.  This  man  and  his 
wife,  a  large,  fearless  woman,  were  practically  the  commis- 
sariat department  of  the  neighboring  camp.  He  made  all 
the  arrangements  for  the  purchase  and  transmission  of  sup- 
plies ;  and  while  he  had  placed  all  his  resources  at  the  dis- 
posal of  the  insurgents,  and  nearly  ruined  himself  for  the 
cause,  he  was  daily  risking  life  and  liberty  by  the  active  and 


256  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

energetic  assistance  he  afforded  in  giving  information,  con- 
veying intelligence,  and  making  himself  generally  useful. 
In  everything  he  was  ably  and  courageously  seconded  by 
his  wife,  who  would  not  hesitate  to  drive  a  cart  of  provisions 
into  the  wood  by  herself,  and  was  unremitting  in  motherly 
care  and  kindness  to  the  members  of  the  band,  many  of 
whom  were  young  enough  to  need  it,  and  whom  she  regarded 
with  as  much  affection  as  if  they  were  her  own  family.  It 
was  only  to  be  expected  that  they  cordially  reciprocated  these 
sentiments. 

Half  a  mile  from  this  farm  we  plunged  into  the  woods. 
The  country  here  was  thinly  populated  ;  the  last  village  we 
passed  was  four  or  five  miles  distant,  and  we  did  not  meet  a 
soul  as  we  jogged  along  in  our  springless  carts  over  a  road 
that  was  now  a  mere  track.  Suddenly  a  halt  was  called 
from  behind,  and  a  panic  spread  dewn  the  line.  The  women's 
faces  blanched,  but  they  said  nothing  ;  the  one  prominent 
thought  was  "  Cossacks."  We  passed  the  word  along  to  the 
leading  cart  to  stop,  and  waited  breathlessly.  We  were  now  so 
deeply  buried  in  the  wood  that  the  last  cart  was  not  visible, 
for  we  had  added  to  our  procession  by  our  guide  and  his  wife 
in  one  vehicle,  and  by  a  large  cart  full  of  provisions,  which  we 
were  taking  to  the  band.  The  cause  of  our  stoppage  was 
quickly  explained — we  were  waiting  for  a  further  accession  to 
our  party,  which  appeared  in  the  forms  of  an  old  gentleman 
and  his  two  sons,  who  were  going  to  join  the  band  as  insur- 
gents, and  who  had  stumbled  on  us  while  endeavoring  to  find 
the  way.  After  some  little  parley  between  them  and  our  guide, 
who  wished  apparently  to  be  quite  satisfied  as  to  their  real 
character,  he  told  them  to  fall  in  behind  with  their  cart,  and 
we  once  more  went  on  threading  our  way  between  the  trees, 
not  a  little  relieved  at  finding  the  interruption  to  our  progress 
did  not  arise  from  any  more  serious  cause.  Suddenly,  on 
emerging  from  a  thicket,  we  came  upon  a  mounted  picket, 
who  halted  us.  It  consisted  of  two  mere  boys,  neither  of 
them  twenty  years  old,  each  armed  with  rifle,  sword,  and 


A   VISIT   TO   AN    INSURGENT   CAMP,  257 

pistol,  and  on  excellent  horses.  The  well-known  face  of 
our  guide  was  a  guarantee  of  our  good  faith,  but  still  we  were 
not  allowed  to  proceed  till  the  band  was  informed  of  our 
proximity,  and  one  of  them  galloped  off  with  the  news.  We 
had  not  waited  a  quarter  of  an  hour  before  a  dozen  mounted 
men  came  dashing  through  the  woods  towards  us.  They 
seemed  scarcely  able  to  restrain  their  high-mettled  horses, 
which  were  all  in  first-rate  condition,  and  would  have  been  a 
credit  to  Rotten  Row.  With  little  flags  waving  from  their 
lances,  and  tricolored  ribbons  fluttering  from  their  square  fur 
caps,  with  long  jack-boots  and  massive  spurs,  and  broad 
belts  garnished  with  revolvers,  and  swords  jingling  from  their 
sides,  they  came  on  us  as  suddenly  from  the  depths  of  the 
woods  as  if  they  had  been  waiting  in  the  side-scene  of  a  play 
to  come  upon  the  stage  with  due  eclat.  The  whole  effect  was 
most  theatrical ;  but  at  the  moment  we  felt  its  thrilling  reality, 
and  some  of  the  women  burst  into  tears. 

Under  the  guidance  of  these  cavaliers  we  penetrated  still 
farther  into  the  gloomy  recesses  of  the  forest,  until  at  last 
the  way  became  too  intricate  for  the  wagons,  and  we  walked 
to  what,  by  a  figure  of  speech,  might  be  called  the  camp,  but 
which  consisted  merely  of  a  number  of  horses  tethered  to 
trees,  and  a  number  of  men  grouped  around  them.  There 
was  not  a  sign  of  a  tent,  or  even  of  a  "  lean-to  "  of  branches 
and  leaves  to  shelter  the  men  from  the  weather.  One  wag- 
on, loaded  with  bundles  and  greatcoats,  formed  the  inipedi- 
jnenta  of  the  band,  which  was  a  very  small  one,  but  was  com- 
posed of  veteran  guerillas,  if  men  who  had  not  been  under  a 
roof  since  the  first  day  of  the  insurrection  could  be  dignified 
by  that  title.  The  weather  was  now  so  warm  and  bright 
that  they  scorned  the  idea  of  sleeping  under  any  kind  of 
cover  ;  and  so  used  were  they  to  the  mode  of  life,  that  they 
ceased  to  feel  its  hardship.  Both  men  and  horses  seemed  in 
first-rate  condition ;  the  horses  were  the  best  which  the 
estates  of  the  neighboring  proprietors  could  furnish ;  the 
men  were  nearly  all  under  twenty-five  j  the  leader  of  the 


258  EPISODES   IN  A  LIFE   OF  ADVENTURE. 

band,  who  was  away  on  a  reconnaissance,  being  exactly  that 
age.  A  few  were  the  sons  of  country  gentlemen  ;  one  had 
been  a  railway  official ;  two  others  employed  in  government 
offices ;  many  were  the  sons  of  shopkeepers,  some  students, 
and  others  domestic  servants ;  but  they  all  lived  together  on 
terms  of  perfect  friendship  and  equality,  and  seemed  to  enjoy 
the  wild,  adventurous  life.  One  of  them,  who  spoke  French 
admirably,  told  me  that  he  was  a  student  only  nineteen  years 
of  age;  he  had  left  Warsaw  on  the  famous  22d  of  January, 
and  had  been  in  the  woods  ever  since.  He  considered  that 
three  months  of  incessant  skirmishing  had  formed  him  into 
an  experienced  warrior.  His  arms  consisted  of  a  brand-new 
Dean  &  Adams  revolver,  a  very  fair  carbine,  and  a  sword. 
"I  slept  in  a  house  the  other  night,"  he  said,  "and  felt  al- 
most stifled  ;  and  I  shall  be  quite  sorry  when  the  war  is  over, 
and  puts  an  end  to  this  free  life  in  the  woods.  I  have  not 
been  a  day  ill  except  when  I  received  a  trifling  wound.  We 
sing  and  sleep  in  the  daytime,  and  gallop  about  the  country  at 
night.  I  have,  moreover,  already  killed  six  Russians,  and 
expect  to  change  my  carbine  for  a  new  rifle,  as  I  am  getting 
such  a  good  shot  that  I  am  to  be  allowed  one."  When  I 
contrasted  the  melancholy  groups  in  the  market-places  of 
Warsaw  and  Cracow  with  this  jolly  band  of  Robin-Hoods, 
I  did  not  doubt  who  had  the  best  of  it.  These  men,  from 
having  been  all  their  lives  accustomed  to  a  life  of  repression 
and  surveillance,  revel  in  their  newly-found  freedom.  To  be 
sure,  they  can  only  enjoy  it  under  difficulties ;  but  the  ground 
they  stand  on  is  their  own,  and  with  fleet  horses  to  ride,  and 
impenetrable  woods  to  hide  in,  they  run  but  little  risk  except 
from  their  own  rashness  or  negligence.  They  change  about 
from  day  to  day ;  if  the  weather  is  very  inclement  they  ap- 
propriate barns,  make  leaf  huts,  or  sleep  under  the  lee  of  hay- 
stacks ;  but  generally  they  keep  moving  at  night,  and  in  the 
daytime  make  roaring  fires,  and  comfort  themselves  with 
warmth  and  tobacco.  They  live  on  the  fat  of  the  land,  and 
are  never  at  loss  for  supplies ;  this  is  the  great  advantage  of 


A   VISIT   TO    AN    INSURGENT   CAMP.  259 

a  small  band.  The  chief  had  limited  his  number  to  forty, 
and  upon  no  pretext  whatever  would  he  add  another  to  it, 
although  he  was  most  urgently  pressed  to  do  so. 

Generally  the  neighboring  gentlemen  and  farmers  are  only 
too  glad  to  furnish  the  little  troop  with  provisions ;  but  if 
they  run  short  they  pay  a  nocturnal  visit  to  a  proprietor, 
from  whom  they  take  as  much  forage  as  they  want,  and  with 
whom,  bo7i  gre  mal gre,  they  regale  themselves  till  the  small 
hours,  when  each  man,  filling  his  haversack  with  the  good 
things  of  this  life,  and  loading  his  nag  with  fodder,  trots 
back  to  his  nest  in  the  woods,  leaving  with  their  late  host  an 
order  on  the  national  government  to  repay  "  Mr.  Soandso- 
sky  "  for  food  furnished  to  the  band  commanded  by  "  Such- 
anonesky."  This  order  "  Soandsosky  "  most  carefully  con- 
ceals, as,  if  it  is  ever  found  among  his  papers,  his  property 
is  inevitably  confiscated  by  the  Russian  government.  On 
the  occasion  of  my  visit,  three  of  my  companions  were  coun- 
try gentlemen  of  the  neighborhood,  each  of  whom  pulled  out 
his  pocket-book  and  wrote  an  order  for  a  supply  of  forage 
and  provisions,  to  be  obeyed  by  the  servants  in  the  event  of 
"  Suchanonesky  "  or  any  of  his  band  visiting  his  house  dur- 
ing the  absence  of  the  master.  Almost  every  day  the  band 
changes  its  habitat,  which,  as  they  have  nothing  to  carry,  is 
a  very  simple  proceeding.  As  the  wood  in  which  they  live 
is  about  eighty  miles  long  by  twenty  broad,  and  as  they  know 
every  nook  and  corner  in  it,  there  is  not  much  chance  of 
their  ever  being  caught  by  the  numerous  Russian  garrisons 
which  are  posted  in  the  vicinity,  and  which  they  amuse  them- 
selves by  annoying  at  night.  My  observation  of  this  band 
proved  to  demonstration  the  erroneous  principle  upon  which 
the  war  had  been  conducted  by  the  insurgents  in  most  parts 
of  the  country  hitherto.  Instead  of  multiplying,  to  an  indef- 
inite extent,  these  small  cavalry  bands,  they  would  collect 
great  masses  of  men  together,  of  whom  scythemen  are  the 
least  adapted  to  the  style  of  warfare  they  wish  to  wage.  In 
a  fiat  country  of  woods  and  plains,  it  is  perfectly  clear  that 


26o  EPISODES    IN    A    LIFE   OF    ADVENTURE. 

a  weapon  which  can  only  be  used  by  a  man  on  foot  at  close 
quarters  is  about  the  worst  which  could  possibly  be  devised 
for  undisciplined  men  to  wield  against  regular  troops.  It  is 
true  that  a  great  difficulty  has  existed  in  procuring  rifles; 
but  it  would  have  been  better  to  have  fewer  and  smaller 
bands  well  armed,  than  to  waste  unnecessarily  the  best  blood 
in  the  country.  With  a  good  horse  and  a  good  rifle  a  man 
is  more  or  less  independent,  and  may  act  singly  or  in  com- 
pany, as  his  fancy  dictates  ;  but  men  on  foot  must  act  to- 
gether, and  have  no  means  of  escape  from  Cossacks.  In  a 
country  so  admirably  adapted  for  cavalry,  and  where  horses 
are  so  abundant,  it  is  surprising  that  more  bands  formed  on 
the  principle  of  the  one  I  was  now  visiting  should  not  have 
been  raised :  so  far  as  I  could  learn,  it  was  the  only  one  of 
the  sort  which  existed.  Many  were  the  feats  of  prowess 
which  its  members  had  performed  singly.  Upon  one  occa- 
sion two  of  them  had  encountered  five  Cossacks,  who  imme- 
diately gave  chase.  As  the  Cossacks  are  mounted  on  po- 
nies, the  insurgents  would  have  had  no  difficulty  in  escaping  ; 
but  this  was  not  their  object :  they  reined  in,  and  tempted 
their  pursuers  to  discharge  their  five  carbines  at  them  ;  then, 
before  they  could  reload,  they  wheeled  round,  and  shot  the 
whole  five  with  their  revolvers.  I  found  a  good  many  of  the 
band  spoke  French,  and  our  visit  was  quite  an  episode  in 
the  routine  of  their  daily  life.  They  clustered  round,  showed 
me  their  arms,  and  seemed  delighted  at  the  courage  which 
the  women  had  displayed  in  visiting  them,  and  in  the  inter- 
est manifested  by  a  foreigner  in  their  proceedings.  Mean- 
while the  contents  of  the  commissariat  wagon  we  had  brought 
with  us  were  spread  upon  the  ground,  and  the  more  hungry 
portion  of  the  community  began  to  discuss  them  ;  others, 
however,  declared  that  our  company  was  so  much  more 
to  their  taste  than  food,  that  they  devoted  themselves  to  us 
instead  of  to  the  cold  beef  and  large  jars  of  pickled  cu- 
cumbers which  their  less  sentimental  comrades  were  de- 
vourins:. 


A   VISIT  TO   AN    INSURGENT   CAMP.  261 

When  they  had  concluded  their  repast  they  grouped  them- 
selves in  an  open  space  among  the  tall  trees,  and  "  the  lofty 
aisles  of  the  dim  woods  rang,"  as,  inspired  with  patriotic  ar- 
dor, they  burst  out  with  the  magnificent  chant  which  so  well 
conveys  the  mournful  meaning  of  the  words  of  the  national 
anthem — "Boje  cos  Polske" — when  all  joined  in  the  grand 
prayer  to  God  which  forms  the  swelling  chorus,  and  the  men, 
with  swords  drawn,  uplifted  their  arms  in  supplication  ;  then 
tears  streamed  down  the  cheeks  of  the  women  as  they  sang, 
for  they  remembered  their  sisters  slain  on  their  knees  in  the 
churches  at  Warsaw  for  doing  the  same,  and  bloody  memo- 
ries crowded  on  them,  as,  with  voices  trembling  from  emo- 
tion, they  besought,  in  solemn  strains,  the  mercy  of  the  Most 
High. 

The  scene  was  so  full  of  dramatic  effect  that  I  scarcely 
believed  in  its  reality  till  I  remembered  the  existence  of  six 
thousand  Russian  soldiers  in  the  immediate  neighborhood, 
who  were  thirsting  for  the  blood  of  this  little  band  of  men 
and  women.  There  was  something  practical  in  this  consid- 
eration, calculated  to  captivate  a  mind  too  prosaic  to  be  stirred 
by  theatrical  representations ;  for  I  confess  I  find  it  gener- 
ally more  easy  to  delude  myself  by  believing  in  the  sham  of 
a  reality  than  in  the  reality  of  a  sham.  However,  upon  this 
occasion  he  must  have  been  a  most  uncompromising  stoic 
who  was  not  touched  and  impressed.  Those  bronzed  and 
weather-beaten  features,  and  those  wet  cheeks,  told  their 
own  tale  ;  and  as,  with  each  succeeding  verse,  the  enthusiasm 
of  the  singers  rose,  and  their  countenances  glowed  with  the 
fervor  of  their  emotion,  and  men  who,  tired  with  their  night- 
forays,  were  lying  listlessly  on  the  ground,  unable  to  restrain 
themselves,  sprang  to  their  feet  and  joined,  and  every  voice 
trembled  and  every  pulse  throbbed,  I  felt  that  patriotism  was 
a  sentiment  in  which  one  could  believe — not  merely  as  an 
abstract  principle,  but  as  the  most  absorbing  passion  which 
could  stir  the  human  breast.  I  soon  after  had  a  proof  of  the 
devoted  self-sacrifice  to  which  it  gives  rise.     The  old  gentle- 


262  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE, 

man  who,  with  his  two  sons,  had  joined  our  cortege,  stepped 
forward  when  the  anthem  was  finished,  and  in  broken  accents 
consigned  the  young  men  to  their  country's  cause.     "I  de- 
voutly hope,"  he  said,  "  that  it  may  please  God  to  spare  at 
least  one  of  my  sons  to  my  declining  years,  but  rather  a  thou- 
sand times  that  both  should  perish  than  that  either  should 
venture  to  appear  before  me  while  the  battles  of  his  country 
still  remained  to  be  fought."     Then,  with  trembling  hands,  he 
drew  them  each  to  his  breast,  and,  straining  them  in  a  last 
embrace,  turned  abruptly  away,  and  was  no  more  seen  till 
we  returned  to  the  wagons.     I  no  longer  wondered  that  deeds 
of  heroism  should  be  performed  by  men  thus  solemnly  con- 
secrated to  their  country's  cause.     Usually  before  leaving 
home  they  receive  the  benediction  of  their  priest,  then  the 
blessings  and  injunctions  of  parents  ;  and  now,  under  the 
greenwood-tree,  the  prayers  and  the  tears  of  women,  and  the 
hearty  welcome  of  their  new  comrades,  conspired  to  impress 
them  with  the  determination  to  do  or  die.     Under  such  cir- 
cumstances, even  if  there  were  the  will,  it  would  be  difficult 
to  shirk.     With  a  keenly  imaginative  people  it  may  be  con- 
ceived how  stimulating  to  enterprise  is  the  romantic  charac- 
ter which  attaches  to  this  mode  of  life,  and  the  auspices  un- 
der which  they  adopt  it.     Many  of  them  are  accompanied  by 
their  wives  or  by  their  fiancees  to  the  camps — some  bands 
are  led  by  priests,  who,  with  the  emblem  of  their  faith  up- 
lifted, are  ever  to  be  found  in  the  post  of  danger.     With  the 
band  I  was  now  visiting  a  young  Amazon  in  male  attire  had 
done  good  service.     She  was  reported  pretty,  an  excellent 
shot  and  horsewoman  ;  but  as  she  was  absent  with  the  leader 
on  a  reconnaissance,  I  unfortunately  lost  the  opportunity  of 
making  her  acquaintance.     But  it  is  in  homes,  in  hospitals, 
in  prisons,  and  in  hiding-places,  that  the  women  of  Poland 
have  served  the  cause.     They  stir  up  the  ardor  of  the  men 
round  their  own  firesides ;  they  fan  the  martial  spirit  of  their 
own  husbands,  lovers,  sons,  or  brothers ;  they  watch  over 
beds  where  men  unknown  to  thera,  except  as  wounded  in 


A    VISIT   TO   AN    INSURGENT  CAMP.  263 

their  country's  cause,  groan  and  die.  All  the  tenderness  of 
the  women,  combined  with  intense  sympathy  for  the  cause, 
and  an  inextinguishable  patriotism,  stimulate  them  to  acts  of 
unwearying  devotion  and  self-sacrifice.  For  hours  do  they 
stand  in  all  weathers  in  the  prison-yards,  waiting  for  permis- 
sion to  visit  prisoners  in  their  cells,  and  to  minister  to  them, 
like  angels  of  mercy.  Wherever  a  patriot  is  in  distress, 
hunted,  or  hiding,  or  sick,  women  are  the  first  to  come  to  his 
rescue ;  their  ready  wit  and  instinctive  tact  are  invaluable ; 
and  it  may  safely  be  said  that  without  their  encouragement 
the  movement  never  would  have  begun,  and  without  their 
devotion  and  co-operation  it  could  never  have  lasted  as  it 
did.  Who  are  the  most  courageous  and  intelligent  spies  ? 
who  are  the  surest  messengers  with  important  news  ?  on 
whom  do  the  national  government  most  surely  rely  for  many 
a  delicate  negotiation  ?  whose  fertile  brains  devise  new  com- 
binations for  strong  arms  to  carry  out  ? — the  women  of  Po- 
land. Therefore  it  is  that  they  are  considered  worthy  of  be- 
ing flogged  by  the  Russian  authorities.  Therefore  it  is  that 
young  girls  of  eighteen  have  already  been  shot  by  the  orders 
of  Russian  officers,  and  that  they  are  imprisoned  and  exiled. 
They  are  a  power  not  to  be  despised,  and  certainly  not  to 
be  intimidated,  now  that,  like  tigresses  robbed  of  their 
whelps,  they  are  pushed  to  the  extremity  of  frenzy  and  de- 
spair. 

When  I  saw  the  ladies  who  had  accompanied  us  to  the 
camp,  each  surrounded  by  a  group  of  insurgents,  eagerly 
narrating  their  achievements,  or  asking  for  news  of  home, 
and  heard  words  of  encouragement  and  approval  drop  from 
pretty  lips  into  the  ears  of  men  so  seldom  brought  into  con- 
tact now  with  such  a  grateful  and  softening  influence,  I 
thought  that  these  well-born  women  had  not  incurred  the 
risk  in  vain,  and  that  long  after  our  departure  the  memory  of 
our  visit  would  remain  a  bright  speck  in  the  hard  lives  of  our 
entertainers.  When  at  last  we  thought  it  time  to  move, 
nearly  the  whole  band  accompanied  us,  not  merely  to  the 


264  EPISODES   IN    A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

wagons,  but  they  insisted  upon  escorting  us  to  the  edge  of 
the  wood.  Nothing  but  a  plain  four  miles  broad  then  di- 
vided us  from  a  Russian  army;  so  we  thought  they  had 
pushed  politeness  to  its  utmost  limits  consistent  with  pru- 
dence ;  and  with  many  warm  hand-shakings  and  expressions 
of  gratitude  on  their  part,  and  good  wishes  for  their  success 
on  ours,  we  left  them  drawn  up  in  line,  and  looking  after  us 
for  a  moment  with  longing  eyes  before  they  slowly  wheeled 
round  and  disappeared  in  the  forest. 

Our  journey  home  was  even  more  exciting  than  the  morn- 
ing one  had  been.  The  chances  of  meeting  Cossacks  were 
considerably  increased ;  and  we  had  so  much  to  say  about 
the  band  that  our  attention  was  a  good  deal  distracted. 

On  our  arrival  my  host  showed  me  where  arms  were  se- 
creted in  the  establishment,  in  localities  which  had  hitherto 
defied  the  most  minute  examination  by  the  Russian  soldiery, 
who  had  already  favored  him  with  sundry  nocturnal  visits. 
This  habit  might  have  been  attended  with  results  most  in- 
convenient to  the  whole  party,  had  we  been  favored  with  a 
domiciliary  visit  an  hour  or  two  later.  We  were  all  seated 
at  dinner,  discussing  the  events  of  the  day,  when  suddenly 
the  clattering  of  horses'  hoofs  and  the  jingling  of  swords 
were  heard  outside  the  window,  as  the  dining-room  was  on 
the  ground-floor.  There  was  an  instant  commotion,  not  un- 
mingled  with  alarm.  Our  guilty  consciences  pictured  fero- 
cious Cossacks  surrounding  the  mansion,  as  they  had  already 
done  in  so  many  instances ;  and  we  felt  that  we  had  given 
them  some  excuse.  I  fumbled  in  my  pocket  for  my  pass- 
port, to  display  in  case  of  necessity ;  though,  as  I  had  al- 
ready seen  a  man,  in  the  person  of  Mr.  Finkenstein,  who  re- 
ceived thirty-three  wounds  after  he  had  shown  his  British 
passport,  and  had  not  been  in  an  insurgent  camp,  I  did  not 
jfeel  much  confidence  in  its  protection.  The  cold  touch  of 
my  revolver  in  the  same  pocket  afforded  me  more  satisfac- 
tion, though  the  fact  of  a  weapon  of  any  kind  being  found 
upon  the  person  is  considered  proof  presumptive  that  its 


A   VISIT   TO   AN    INSURGENT   CAMP.  265 

possessor  is  an  insurgent,  and  warrants  his  instant  execution. 
Some  of  us  ran  to  the  hall,  and  there,  sure  enough,  were 
three  men  bristling  with  arms  ;  but  to  our  intense  relief  they 
turned  out  to  be  the  chief  of  the  band  we  had  visited  in  the 
morning,  accompanied  by  his  two  aides-de-camp.  On  his 
return  to  the  band  he  was  so  much  touched  and  gratified  by 
our  visit  that  he  determined  instantly  to  repay  it;  and  al- 
though this  was  an  honor  so  excessively  compromising  that 
we  could  willingly  have  dispensed  with  it,  I  was  not  sorry 
for  the  opportunity  which  it  afforded  me  of  making  the  per- 
sonal acquaintance  of  a  man  of  whom  I  had  only  heard  by  rep- 
utation. After  an  immense  deal  of  kissing  on  both  cheeks, 
the  chief  apologized  for  having  taken,  in  the  dead  of  night, 
four  of  his  best  horses  out  of  the  stables  of  one  of  the  gentle- 
men present,  who  immediately  jumped  up  and  embraced  him 
again,  saying,  "  My  dear  fellow,  you're  welcome  to  them  all ; 
the  more  robberies  of  that  kind  you  make  the  better."  And 
then  they  all  laughed  at  the  same  thing  having  happened  to 
a  stingy  and  rather  unpatriotic  neighbor,  whose  stables  had 
been  altogether  cleared  out  ;  for  the  insurgents  appropriate 
property  very  much  according  to  the  sympathies  of  the  owner. 
A  selfish  and  unpopular  skinflint  they  denude  unmercifully; 
but  a  hearty,  good-natured  patriot,  who  is  doing  all  he  can 
for  the  movement,  they  let  off  as  easily  as  they  can.  A  good 
deal  has  been  said  by  persons,  ignorant  of  the  conditions 
under  which  the  struggle  was  conducted,  of  the  apparent 
apathy  of  the  landed  proprietary,  who,  except  in  very  rare 
instances,  did  not  take  the  field  themselves.  This  was  not 
from  any  indifference  to  the  cause,  but  from  the  fact  that  the 
movement  depended  upon  the  wealth  of  the  country  for  its 
resources  ;  and  as  the  property  of  any  one  taking  an  active 
share  in  hostilities  would  have  been  immediately  confiscated, 
the  national  government  would  have  been  deprived  of  its 
revenue,  and  the  bands  have  lost  those  facilities  for  j^rocur- 
ing  supplies,  concealing  wounded,  accumulating  arms,  etc., 
which  they  enjoyed.     Every  country-house  was  a  harbor  of 


266  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE    OF   ADVENTURE. 

refuge,  and  the  proprietors  who  lived  upon  them  could  be 
of  far  more  use  to  the  insurgents  in  a  variety  of  ways  than 
if  they  merely  helped  to  swell  the  number  of  a  band.  As  it 
was,  half  the  fighting  population  was  unable  to  go  into  the 
woods  for  want  of  arms  and  ammunition.  There  was  no 
lack  of  volunteers — quite  the  contrary.  The  leader,  who 
took  his  place  next  me  at  dinner,  when  the  excitement  atten- 
dant upon  his  arrival  had  subsided,  informed  me  that  he  re- 
fused as  many  as  eight  and  ten  applications  every  day  of 
men  anxious  to  join  his  band,  some  of  whom  were  experi- 
enced men,  and  had  been  officers  in  other  bands ;  but  that 
he  had  decided  upon  not  adding  to  his  numbers,  partly  be- 
cause he  felt  that  a  larger  body  of  men  would  be  unwieldy, 
and  partly  because  he  had  neither  the  requisite  arms  nor 
ammunition.  "  Though,"  he  said,  slyly,  "  I  did  a  good  stroke 
of  business  to-day.  I  went  down  to  the  railway  station,  put 
on  a  paletot,  and  took  thirty  carbines  out  of  a  train  under 
the  eyes  of  a  company  of  Russian  soldiers,  without  their  sus- 
pecting what  I  was  about."  I  asked  him  how  much  ammu- 
nition he  had  got,  and  where  he  kept  it.  He  said  that  it 
was  buried  in  different  parts  of  the  wood,  and  that  he  had 
enough  to  last  his  present  band  three  months.  It  is  only 
natural,  where  collisions  are  of  daily  occurrence,  with  ever- 
varying  results,  that  the  composition  of  bands  should  be 
constantly  changing.  When  a  body  of  insurgents  are  hard 
pressed,  or  run  out  of  ammunition,  they  disband  entirely, 
and  each  man  looks  about  for  a  leader  that  he  likes,  just  as 
sailors  choose  their  captains.  Some  of  the  men  I  conversed 
with  in  the  wood  had  been  in  half  a  dozen  bands,  and  had 
fought  in  every  palatinate  in  the  kingdom.  The  united  ages 
of  the  leader  and  his  two  aides-de-camp  did  not  amount  to 
seventy  years,  and  they  had  all  the  confidence  and  buoyancy 
of  youth.  There  was  evidently  a  refreshing  novelty  about 
sitting  at  a  civilized  table,  and  they  did  ample  justice  to  the 
good  things  with  which  it  was  loaded  •  while  they  were  ap- 
parently quite  unconscious  of  our  regarding  them  with  feel- 


A   VISIT   TO   AN    INSURGENT   CAMP,  267 

ings  in  which  terror  combined  with  a  desire  to  make  our- 
selves agreeable.  Our  poor  hostess  sat  and  did  the  honors 
white  with  anxiety.  She  would  have  infinitely  preferred  an 
open  barrel  of  gunpowder  on  the  table  to  her  three  danger- 
ous guests,  but  no  words  escaped  her  lips  except  those  which 
were  kind  and  hospitable.  At  any  moment  we  might  ex- 
pect a  visit  from  Russians,  and  then  every  soul  would  have 
been  slaughtered.  There  were  already  too  many  precedents 
to  render  our  fate  doubtful ;  but  still  we  laughed  over  our 
wine,  and  sipped  our  coffee,  as  if  we  liked  it ;  and  indeed  I 
was  hearing  so  much  that  was  curious  and  interesting  from 
the  chief  that  I  should  have  regretted  anything  that  would 
have  curtailed  his  visit.  He  had  been  educated  at  the  Po- 
lish Military  College,  established  by  the  Italian  government 
at  Cuneo,  and  which  has  since  been  abolished.  He  spoke, 
therefore,  very  fair  Italian,  and  a  little  French,  and  was  most 
intelligent  in  his  observations,  and  in  the  ideas  he  had  formed 
as  to  the  mode  of  conducting  the  war.  Some  of  them  were 
eminently  original ;  but  they  showed  that  he  thought  and 
acted  on  a  principle  which  he  understood — not  a  common 
quality  among  Polish  insurgent  leaders.  We  discussed  a 
variety  of  stratagems  and  ruses  which  might  be  effectively 
practised  upon  an  unsuspicious  enemy.  The  Russians  have 
an  intense  dislike  to  nocturnal  operations,  in  which  my 
young  friend  especially  delighted  ;  and  he  related  with  satis- 
faction the  numerous  plans  he  had  devised  for  keeping  them 
awake.  Not  that  he  spoke  with  any  excitability  or  swagger  : 
his  tone  was  calm  and  measured,  his  eye  deep  and  thought- 
ful. He  impressed  me  at  once  as  a  man  of  great  force  and 
individuality  of  character  ;  and  I  afterwards  understood  that 
he  possessed  the  most  complete  ascendency  over  his  band, 
especially  since  he  had  shot  one  or  two  for  breach  of  disci- 
pline. 

The  glance  of  his  eye  was  enough  to  make  an  aide-de- 
camp jump,  and  I  was  rather  amused  to  see  it ;  for  he  was 
descanting  at  the  time  on  the  democratic  constitution  of  his 


268  EPISODES    IN    A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

band,  "  I  am  only  the  leader  in  the  field  ;  we  are  all  really 
upon  an  equality.  Only  some  one  must  direct,  otherwise 
we  dislike  all  distinctions  of  rank."  A  Garibaldian  shirt 
corresponded  to  all  these  opinions  ;  a  brace  of  revolvers, 
jack-boots,  spurs,  braided  trousers,  a  handkerchief  loosely 
knotted  round  his  neck,  and  a  coquettish  square  Polish  cap 
on  a  beautifully  shaped  head,  completed  a  very  picturesque 
attire ;  and  although  there  was  nothing  foppish  about  his 
dress,  it  was  evident  that  he  had  rummaged  the  one  wagon 
containing  the  clothing  of  the  band  before  he  presented  him- 
self to  the  ladies.  But  he  became  as  timid  as  a  girl,  not- 
withstanding, when  any  of  them  spoke  to  him  ;  and  he  made 
a  complete  conquest  of  one  enthusiastic  young  lady — prin- 
cipally, I  think,  by  blushing  and  looking  down  whenever  she 
addressed  him.  Handsome,  dashing,  brave,  and  gentle,  with 
eyes  that  flashed  now  and  then  with  subdued  fire,  a  tender 
voice,  and  only  twenty-five,  no  wonder  he  was  irresistible, 
and  all  the  more  so  from  seeming  utterly  unconscious  of  his 
personal  attractions.  His  aides-de-camp,  neither  of  whom 
were  troubled  with  bashfulness,  and  one  of  whom  was  at- 
tired in  all  the  elegancies  of  the  camp,  had  not  a  chance 
with  their  quiet  leader.  They  laughed  and  chatted,  while  he 
rarely  smiled  ;  but  when  he  spoke  all  listened,  and  what  he 
said  was  always  worth  listening  to.  His  whole  soul  was  ab- 
sorbed in  his  occupation  ;  the  admiring  glances  of  women, 
and  the  complimentary  phrases  of  the  men,  were  alike  un- 
heeded. He  made  me  describe  how  Indians  fight,  how 
Caffres  fight,  how  Chinamen  fight  j  we  discussed  guerilla 
warfare  under  every  phase  as  practised  in  different  coun- 
tries, and  I  saw  he  was  making  mental  memoranda  for  future 
use.  He  assured  me  that  he  felt  that,  if  any  mishap  befell 
either  himself  or  his  band,  it  would  be  their  own  fault.  With 
fleet  horses,  and  an  extensive  forest  to  hide  in,  he  could  defy 
the  whole  Russian  army;  and, in  his  opinion,  the  whole  in- 
surgent forces  should  be  mounted  and  equipped  upon  the 
principle  he  had  adopted.     In  each  district  there  might  be 


A   VISIT   TO   AN    INSURGENT   CAMP.  269 

ten  or  twelve  such  bands,  under  the  control  of  a  general-in- 
chief,  but  each  acting  independently,  except  when  some  com- 
bined operation  rendered  union  necessary.  All  the  insur- 
gent bands  were  of  course  under  the  direct  control  of  the 
national  government,  which  appointed  the  local,  civil,  and 
military  authorities  throughout  the  country.  They  reported 
officially  upon  the  strength  of  the  bands,  the  nature  of  the 
operations  which  are  to  be  undertaken,  and  the  extent  of 
war  material  available.  The  leader  was  at  liberty  to  act  ac- 
cording as  circumstances  might  direct,  but  he  only  held  his 
position  at  the  pleasure  of  the  national  government.  My 
informant  told  me  that  he  had  great  difficulty  in  getting  per- 
mission from  Warsaw  to  carry  out  the  formation  of  his  band 
on  his  own  system  ]  that  in  the  first  instance  they  had 
pressed  upon  him  the  leadership  of  a  band  of  two  hundred 
men,  half  of  whom  were  Kossinieri^  but  that  he  had  refused 
to  take  any  command  except  as  organized  by  himself.  Upon 
every  occasion  where  serious  disaster  had  befallen  the  na- 
tional arms,  it  was  to  be  traced  to  the  same  cause,  the  mass- 
ing together  of  too  many  undisciplined  men. 

It  was  late  before  we  brought  our  interesting  discussion  to 
a  close,  and  my  hostess  heaved  a  sigh  of  relief  as  her  guests 
rose  to  take  their  departure.  Embracing  each  other  as  men 
only  do  where  there  is  small  chance  of  their  ever  meeting 
again,  all  the  gentlemen  present  bade  adieu  to  the  three  in- 
surgents, whose  fiery  steeds  seemed  impatient  for  the  mid- 
night gallop  which  was  to  take  their  masters  to  roost  among 
the  trees.  I  could  not  help  congratulating  myself  upon  the 
prospect  of  a  comfortable  bed.  It  seemed  cruel  to  turn  out 
of  a  luxurious  country-house  and  go  to  sleep  in  a  wood  with- 
out even  the  covering  of  a  tent ;  and  yet  I  doubt  whether 
any  of  the  three  would  have  changed  their  mode  of  life  for 
any  that  could  have  been  suggested  to  them.  We  all 
grouped  round  the  door  to  wave  our  farewells  as  they  dashed 
off  into  the  darkness,  the  women  heaping  blessings  upon 
their  heads,  and  offering  up  prayers  for  their  safety. 


270  EPISODES   IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE, 

Next  morning,  as  I  crossed  the  yard  to  breakfast,  I  saw  a 
poor  woman  sitting  crying  in  the  porch.  I  inquired  of  my 
host,  who  was  cross-questioning  her,  what  her  distress  arose 
from.  She  said  that  about  midnight  three  insurgents  had 
come  to  the  door  of  her  cottage  and  woke  herself  and  her 
husband  ;  that  he  had  got  out  of  bed,  when  he  was  immedi- 
ately seized,  carried  off  between  them  to  the  edge  of  the 
wood,  and  then  and  there  hung.  And  she  added,  weeping 
bitterly,  "  I  know  he  must  have  done  something  very  wrong 
to  deserve  it,  or  they  never  would  have  hung  him."  I  was 
rather  shocked  at  this  pieceof  retributive  justice,  so  prompt- 
ly executed  by  my  three  young  friends  of  the  night  before. 
It  appeared  that,  on  their  way  back  to  camp  after  dining 
with  us,  they  received  undoubted  information  that  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  day  had  been  reported  to  the  Russians  by 
this  peasant,  who  was  in  the  employ  of  my  host,  and  had 
long  been  mistrusted  by  him  ;  and  as  the  execution  of  spies 
is  an  essential  condition  to  the  safety  of  every  one  connected 
with  the  movement,  the  disagreeable  necessity  of  hanging 
them  is  forced  upon  the  insurgents  against  their  inclination. 
In  fact,  the  story  was  not  likely  to  make  my  host  feel  very 
comfortable.  True,  the  man  was  hung,  and  could  not  give 
evidence  against  him  ;  but  we  had  done  a  good  many  com- 
promising things  during  the  last  twenty-four  hours,  known  to 
numbers  of  people,  and  it  was  not  reassuring  to  feel  that  the 
Russians  had  been  made  aware  of  them,  I  began  to  think 
it  quite  time  for  the  carriage  to  appear  which  was  to  carry 
me  away  from  a  locality  where  I  had  been  treated  with  such 
unbounded  confidence  and  hospitality,  but  which  was  getting 
rather  too  warm  to  be  pleasant.  It  seemed  ungrateful  to 
get  all  one  could  out  of  people,  and  then  to  desert  them ; 
but  they  said  I  had  seen  everything,  and  that  it  would  be 
folly  to  stay  longer  in  the  country — "unless,  indeed,"  said 
one  gentleman,  "you  would  like  to  take  your  chances  with 
me,  and  drive  into  Lithuania  in  my  carriage,  visiting  camps 
en  7-ouie,'"     The  proposal  was  tempting ;  but  I  hardly  think 


A   VISIT   TO   AN    INSURGENT   CAMP,  271 

it  was  really  expected  that  I  should  accept  it,  the  more  es- 
pecially as  he  never  drove  into  Lithuania  at  all,  but  went 
peaceably  back  to  his  wife  in  Warsaw.  So  I  contented  my- 
self with  a  twenty-mile  drive  in  his  company,  parting  from 
my  late  host  with  many  cordial  expressions  of  good-will  and 
mutual  kind  wishes. 

On  arriving  at  the  country  mansion  of  my  next  host,  the 
first  intelligence  which  greeted  us  was  another  case  of  hang- 
ing. It  seemed  that  his  footman  had  been  campaigning  for 
a  week  with  the  insurgents,  and  had  returned  home  for  a 
rest,  preparatory  to  starting  off  afresh.  One  of  the  farm- 
laborers,  who  bore  him  a  grudge,  informed  the  Russians  in 
the  neighborhood  of  the  circumstance,  and  he  was  made 
prisoner  in  the  night  by  a  patrol,  and  walked  off  to  be  exe- 
cuted. A  few  members  of  the  band  we  had  visited  in  the 
wood,  reconnoitring  close  by  at  the  time,  on  hearing  of  this, 
at  once  retaliated  on  the  informer,  who  was  at  the  moment 
swinging  from  the  branch  of  a  tree  in  a  wood  near  by. 

Incidents  of  this  tragical  nature  were  constantly  happen- 
ing. My  host  deeply  lamented  the  loss  of  his  domestic 
servant,  but  did  not  the  least  seem  to  regret  the  fate  which 
had  overtaken  the  peasant, "  who,"  he  said,  "  richly  merited 
it."  The  insurgents  had  also  taken  the  opportunity  of  ab- 
stracting two  of  his  best  horses,  at  which  he  only  laughed. 
We  now  debated  the  possibility  of  witnessing  a  skirmish,  re- 
ported to  be  going  on  in  the  neighborhood  between  a  band 
of  seven  hundred  insurgents,  of  whom  two  hundred  were 
peasants,  and  the  Russian  troops.  When  we  reached  the 
railway,  we  found  a  train  full  of  the  latter  hastening  to  the 
scene  of  action.  But  on  approaching  it  ourselves  matters 
did  not  look  propitious:  inquisitive  Poles,  not  wanting  in 
daring,  had  found  the  vicinity  of  the  fighting  too  dangerous 
for  spectators  to  remain.  There  was  no  alternative  between 
taking  an  active  part  with  the  insurgents  and  keeping  out 
of  the  way  altogether.  Every  Russian  soldier  we  saw  looked 
at  us  with  suspicion.     The  platform  of  the  station  at  which 


272  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

they  alighted  to  march  down  to  the  fighting  was  crowded 
with  scowhng,  ill-favored-looking  men,  who  only  wanted  an 
excuse  to  be  let  loose  on  society ;  and  the  whole  country 
within  a  radius  of  five  miles  of  the  scene  of  action  was  de- 
serted. Moreover,  the  Russians  were  between  us  and  the 
insurgents,  and  anybody  travelling  towards  the  latter  would 
be  almost  certainly  arrested  ;  so  we  contented  ourselves 
with  picking  up  scraps  of  news.  My  friend  determined  to 
remain  in  the  little  country  town  to  hear  the  result  before  re- 
turning to  Warsaw;  but  as  every  stranger  in  it  was  sus- 
pected, and  the  whole  neighborhood  had  become  more  or 
less  informed  of  my  proceedings,  the  notoriety  might  prove 
inconvenient,  as  an  Englishman  was  naturally  an  object  of 
curiosity  :  so,  as  I  was  near  the  frontier  at  any  rate,  I  thought 
the  wiser  course  would  be  to  cross  it  while  it  was  yet  time, 
and  make  my  final  exit  from  Poland.  Every  guard  and  con- 
ductor on  the  line  knew  where  I  had  been,  and  was  over- 
whelmingly civil  in  consequence :  a  ticket  was  considered  a 
superfluity,  the  examination  of  luggage  a  solemn  sham.  My 
passport  might  have  been  a  piece  of  waste  paper.  Had  I 
not  been  to  a  camp?  was  I  not  a  well-wisher  to  Poland? 
was  not  that  passport  and  railway-ticket  enough  ?  And  to 
avoid  a  shower  of  benedictions,  and  the  most  profuse  ex- 
pressions of  gratitude  for  having  ever  taken  the  trouble  to 
come  to  their  countrj^,  I  left  it  a  wiser  and  a  sadder  man 
than  when  I  had  crossed  the  frontier  from  Galicia,  scarce  a 
fortnight  before. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

TWENTY-FOUR    HOURS    IN   VOLHYNIA. 

For  the  six  months  which  followed  my  visit  to  Poland 
during  the  insurrection,  I  watched  its  progress  with  a  keen 
and  unflagging  interest,  I  heard  that  one  friend,  with  whom 
I  had  been  most  intimate,  had  been  arrested  and  placed  au 
secret  in  a  cell,  where  all  access  was  denied  to  him  ;  that  the 
daring  young  leader  of  the  band  I  had  visited,  after  perform- 
ing many  feats  of  valor,  which  were  chronicled  in  some  of  the 
papers,  had  been  captured  and  shot  by  a  file  of  Russian 
soldiery  ;  that  the  chief  of  the  band  of  seven  hundred,  who 
were  successful  in  the  fight  I  did  not  see,  had  been  accused 
by  his  men  of  treachery,  and  was  in  confinement  by  the  or- 
ders of  the  national  government,  no  one  knew  where,  and 
was  to  be  tried  by  court-martial,  no  one  knew  when  ;  that  the 
venerable  archbishop  who  had  discussed  with  me  in  Warsaw 
the  prospect  of  the  insurrection  in  broken  and  despondent 
tones,  had  been  exiled  to  Siberia  ;  that  women  whom  I  had 
met  were  in  prison  ;  and  that  the  list  of  men  whose  acquaint- 
ance I  had  made  or  whose  names  were  familiar  to  me,  who 
had  been  shot,  was  daily  increasing — but  that,  in  spite  of  all 
this,  the  Poles  were  still  sanguine  of  intervention  in  their 
favor  on  the  part  either  of  France  or  of  England,  or  of  both 
jointly.  The  only  intervention  they  craved  was  protection 
for  the  introduction  of  arms  and  the  munitions  of  war,  either 
by  the  Baltic  or  across  the  Austrian  frontier.  For  the  re- 
sistance wliich  they  had  offered  to  the  Russian  troops  for 
nearly  a  year,  armed  only  with  scythes,  and  with  rifles  smug- 
gled into  the  country,  had  convinced  them  that  they  only 

12* 


2  74  EPISODES    IN    A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

needed  artillery,  and  a  sufficient  supply  of  ammunition,  to 
achieve  their  own  freedom.  Meantime  the  efforts  of  the  in- 
surgents had  latterly  been  directed  mainly  towards  spread- 
ing the  flame  of  revolt  into  Ruthenia,  and  the  various  rumors 
I  heard  of  the  condition  of  that  part  of  Russia  induced  me 
in  the  autumn  of  the  same  year  to  make  a  trip  in  that  direc- 
tion. 

My  travelling  companion  upon  this  occasion  was  the  Hon. 
Evelyn  Ashley.  Our  intention  was  to  traverse  the  Russian 
province  of  Volhynia  as  far  as  Kamienetz  Podolsk)^,  as  the 
accounts  which  were  published  with  reference  to  the  condi- 
tion of  that  part  of  the  country  were  the  most  conflicting,  the 
Poles  maintaining  that  the  elements  of  insurrection  existed 
abundantly,  and  only  required  encouragement  to  blaze  forth  ; 
the  Russians,  on  the  other  hand,  declaring  that  the  province 
was  profoundly  tranquil,  and  that,  with  the  exception  of  a  few 
landed  proprietors,  the  loyalty  of  the  population  was  to  be 
thoroughly  counted  upon.  That  the  Poles  were  sincere  in 
believing  in  the  possibility  of  spreading  the  revolt  into  this 
part  of  the  Russian  dominions,  is  sufficiently  demonstrated 
by  the  fact  that  they  organized  a  large  band  under  Wysocki 
for  the  purpose  of  invading  it ;  while  the  disaster  which  over- 
whelmed the  expedition  at  its  outset  strengthened  the  public 
conviction  in  favor  of  the  correctness  of  the  Russian  state- 
ments on  the  subject.  In  this  latter  case,  however,  it  would 
scarcely  seem  that  the  internal  condition  of  the  province 
warranted  the  extreme  measures  resorted  to  by  the  Russians 
to  maintain  a  tranquillity  which,  according  to  their  own  as- 
sertions, was  not  in  danger ;  and  I  was  anxious  to  judge  for 
myself  whether  the  charges  of  cruelty  brought  against  the 
Russian  administration  were  true,  so  far  as  they  applied  to 
Volhynia,  and  to  what  extent  the  population  sympathized  in 
the  national  movement.  As  the  scene  of  our  projected  ex- 
pedition was  beyond  railways,  or  even  the  appliances  of  post- 
ing in  civilized  countries,  it  became  necessary  to  invest  in  a 
carriage  at  Lemberg;  and  we  employed  two  mornings  in  in- 


TWENTY-FOUR    HOURS    IN   VOLHYNIA.  275 

vestigating  the  mysterious  workings  of  the  Jewish  mind  in 
the  matter  of  bargain  and  sale.  It  was  only  after  two  days 
of  patient,  and  I  may  say  conscientious,  intrigue,  and  after 
having  explored  the  recesses  of  almost  every  coach-house  in 
Lemberg,  that  we  ultimately  purchased,  for  the  sum  of  £<^, 
an  excellent  roomy  conveyance,  with  C  springs  and  strong 
axles,  in  which  we  journeyed  for  more  than  a  month — trav- 
ersing upwards  of  a  thousand  miles,  and  never  once  having 
to  do  more  than  tighten  the  screws.  The  Jew  who  ultimate- 
ly effected  this  bargain  for  us  received  a  tenth  of  the  sum  as 
his  commission.  It  took  us  a  night  to  post  from  Lemberg 
to  Brody,  a  Jew-inhabited  town,  containing  the  usual  square, 
with  arcades  all  round,  and  arcades  forming  a  market-place 
in  the  centre,  where  only  this  one  class  of  the  population  buzz 
and  swarm,  and  almost  forcibly  drag  you  into  odoriferous 
corners  to  buy  things  you  don't  want ;  and  where  the  women, 
with  greasy  plaits  of  false  hair,  which  last  them  a  lifetime, 
twined  round  their  heads,  try  to  persuade  you,  with  soft 
glances,  to  leave  some  of  your  riches  on  their  counter.  As 
we  were  both  ignorant  of  Russian,  we  had  procured  a  servant 
at  Lemberg,  a  snub-nosed  individual,  who  gave  a  somewhat 
indistinct  account  of  his  former  life,  was  vague  as  to  his  na- 
tionality, and  incoherent  in  his  general  conversation.  How- 
ever, we  were  obliged  to  close  with  him  at  the  last  moment 
for  want  of  a  better ;  and  with  this  questionable  addition  to 
our  party  we  started  about  ten  o'clock  one  fine  autumn  morn- 
ing for  the  Russian  frontier ;  four  little  rats  of  ponies  dragged 
us  painfully  across  the  sandy  plain,  which  extends  eastward, 
and  which  near  the  frontier  is  covered  with  a  dense  pine 
forest.  Here  the  deep  sand  forces  us  to  walk,  and  our  coach- 
man explains  to  us  that  in  these  extensive  woods  the  ill-fated 
expedition  of  Wysocki  collected  prior  to  their  attack  upon 
Radziviloff.  Emerging  from  their  dark  recesses,  we  debouch 
upon  a  plain  which  was  the  scene  of  the  disaster.  But  first 
we  are  detained  at  the  Austrian  frontier,  and  go  through  the 
necessary  passport  formalities ;  a  mile  beyond  it  is  the  first 


276  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE    OF   ADVENTURE. 

Russian  picket,  where  an  ill-looking  Mongol  is  keeping 
guard  over  a  sentry-box  made  of  the  boughs  of  trees  :  in  the 
distance  a  group  of  Cossacks,  with  long  lances  and  shaggy 
ponies,  are  struggling  over  the  plain  towards  the  town  of 
Radziviloff,  now  visible  in  the  distance.  In  crossing  this 
piece  of  country  the  Poles  suffered  severely  from  the  Rus- 
sian artillery,  but  they  were  not  finally  checked,  as  we  were, 
at  the  barrier.  This  is  placed  on  a  narrow  strip  of  land 
which  divides  a  marshy  pond  from  a  reedy  lake — a  dismal 
swamp  extending  indefinitely  round  the  position,  and  ren- 
dering it  in  every  respect  one  most  undesirable  to  attack, 
and  easy  to  defend. 

We  were  detained  for  some  time  outside  the  high  gate 
which,  flanked  by  stiff"  palisades  and  guarded  by  a  couple  of 
sentries,  barred  our  farther  progress ;  and  if  we  could  only- 
have  foreseen  the  annoyance  to  which  we  were  to  be  exposed 
upon  the  other  side,  we  should  not  have  been  so  anxious  to 
pass  through.  However,  we  waited  patiently,  until,  at  the  ex- 
piration of  an  hour,  we  received  permission  to  drive  on,  when 
the  gates  were  instantly  closed  behind  us,  and  we  found  our- 
selves impounded  in  an  enclosure,  the  exit  from  which  was 
also  a  guarded  gate,  while  there  was  just  room  on  the  cause- 
way for  a  custom-house  and  guard-room.  We  were  instantly 
surrounded  by  half  a  dozen  officials,  and  our  luggage  was 
soon  ranged  in  the  veranda  for  inspection,  and  became  a  cen- 
tre of  attraction  for  other  wayfarers,  impounded  like  ourselves, 
waiting  for  their  passports,  and  who  were  glad  of  the  distrac- 
tion which  the  examination  of  our  effects  afforded.  These 
were,  for  the  most  part,  Jews  or  peasants — the  former  especial- 
ly swarmed  here  as  elsewhere.  Meanwhile  the  carriage  was 
being  minutely  examined,  the  pockets  and  lining  were  care- 
fully inspected,  and  then  the  attention  of  the  authorities  was 
concentrated  upon  ourselves.  Just  as  the  operation  was  be- 
ginning, however,  our  feelings  received  a  sudden  shock  by  the 
announcement  that  our  servant  was  found  to  be  a  compro- 
mised person,  if  not  an  actual  insurgent — that  his  name  was 


TWENTY- FOUR    HOURS    IN   VOLHYNIA.  277 

down  in  the  police  records,  that  he  was  a  Russian  subject, 
and  that  we  should,  in  all  probability,  be  deprived  of  his 
services,  after  having  enjoyed  them  only  a  few  hours.  In 
vain  did  he  protest  that  they  must  have  mistaken  him  for 
somebody  else  ;  his  forbidding  countenance  seemed  to  give 
the  lie  to  his  assertions ;  and  we  felt  that  his  connection 
with  us  threw  a  serious  doubt  over  the  respectability  of  his 
masters.  All  this  time  our  clothes  were  being  taken  out  of  our 
portmanteaus,  and,  after  being  separately  examined,  thrown 
in  a  pile  in  the  yard.  The  shirts  were  carefully  shaken  out, 
the  lining  of  the  coats  was  felt;  a  piece  of  old  newspaper, 
in  which  boots  had  been  wrapped  up,  was  laid  on  one  side 
for  further  inspection ;  a  very  harmless  map  of  the  country, 
a  "  Bradshaw's  Railway  Guide,"  a  French  novel,  and  half  a 
sheet  of  note-paper,  which  was  written  over,  and  which  I  had 
accidentally  left  in  my  blotting-book,  were  all  placed  together 
as  objects  of  suspicion.  Still  we  were  sanguine  as  to  the  ul- 
timate result,  when  suddenly  a  breastpin — which  I  had  bought 
some  months  previously,  on  account  of  its  antique  form,  at 
Cracow — was  seized  upon  triumphantly.  I  could  not  deny 
that  the  device  was  a  Polish  eagle;  and  when  I  offered  to 
present  it  to  the  inspector  as  a  proof  of  the  little  value  I 
placed  upon  it,  he  shrank  back  with  horror.  From  this  mo- 
ment the  chain  of  evidence  against  us  was  complete  :  a  rebel 
servant,  a  map,  a  breastpin,  and  a  "  Bradshaw."  Our  treach- 
erous intentions  were  indeed  made  so  clear  by  these  last 
three  articles  that  the  servant  was  no  longer  necessary,  and 
the  head  official  frankly  told  us  that  it  was  all  a  mistake,  and 
that  he  was  not  known  to  them  at  all.  It  was  evident  that 
they  had  begun  with  securing  something  fatal  against  us,  in 
case  they  should  fail  in  seizing  anything  really  dangerous ; 
but  having  got  the  breastpin,  it  was  no  longer  necessary  to 
assert  that  we  had  an  insurgent  for  a  domestic.  Our  fate 
was  already  sealed  ;  still  our  ordeal  was  not  ended.  Leav- 
ing our  raiment  piled  outside,  we  were  now  each  ushered 
separately  into  a  small  room,  and,  accompanied  by  an  in- 


278  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

spector  and  a  searcher,  were  submitted  to  a  close  personal 
examination.  Every  pocket  was  turned  out,  our  arms  and 
legs  carefully  felt,  strange  hands  dexterously  explored  hid- 
den recesses  under  our  waistcoats  and  between  our  shoul- 
ders; but  the  only  objects  found  in  my  pocket  were  a  metal- 
lic note-book,  and  a  note  containing  a  few  simple  lines  of  in- 
troduction to  a  gentleman  in  Volhynia  who  had  never  taken 
part  in  the  movement,  and  was  then  residing  at  large  on  his 
property.  With  these  trophies  added  to  the  list,  the  inspect- 
or took  his  final  leave,  and  we  returned  to  sit  in  our  carriage 
and  await  the  result.  The  process  above  described  had  al- 
ready lasted  three  hours,  and  time  wore  on  without  any  pros- 
pect of  release.  Our  only  amusement  was  watching  the  in- 
spection of  fresh  passengers,  as  others  had  watched  us.  We 
saw  sacks  of  produce  prodded  with  iron  rods,  and  an  admoni- 
tory prod  given  to  the  owner  as  a  finish  ;  we  saw  one  male 
stripped  after  another,  for  the  common  herd  were  not  treated 
as  we  were  to  a  private  room,  but  made  to  undress  uncere- 
moniously in  the  road ;  and  we  saw  females  subjected  to  ex- 
amination in  public — not,  indeed,  to  the  extent  of  undress- 
ing, but  of  a  personal  inspection  too  minute  to  be  pleasant, 
while  every  article  of  their  wearing  apparel  was  shaken  out, 
as  ours  had  been,  for  the  benefit  of  the  bystanders.  And  we 
saw  Jews  kicked  and  cufied  more  heartily  than  usually  falls 
even  to  their  lot ;  but  they  drive  a  thriving  traffic  on  these 
frontiers  in  times  too  trying  for  any  other  merchant ;  and  if 
they  receive  abundance  of  kicks,  they  make  halfpence  to  an 
extent  which  fully  compensates  them,  and  thus  reverse  the 
old  proverb.  But  even  these  scenes  after  a  time  became 
monotonous,  and  the  feeling  of  indignation  they  occasionally 
roused  was  not  calculated  to  allay  our  growing  impatience. 
We  had  arrived  at  the  frontier  at  midday,  and  had  now  been 
just  eight  hours  confined  to  our  carriage.  We  could  hear 
nothing  as  to  our  fate ;  the  evening  was  rapidly  closing  in  ; 
it  was  twelve  hours  since  we  had  eaten  a  light  breakfast ; 
and  what  with  hunger,  vexation,  and  uncertainty,  the  stock 


TWENTY-FOUR   HOURS    IN    VOLHYNIA.  279 

of  philosophy  which  had  supported  us  through  the  trials  of 
the  day  was  beginning  to  be  exhausted.  Then  we  were  ob- 
jects of  derision,  curiosity,  or  compassion  to  the  crowd,  ac- 
cording to  the  temperament  of  the  individuals  who  composed 
it.  The  soldiers  grinned  at  us  in  evident  amusement  at  our 
predicament,  until  we  came  to  hate  them  separately  and  col- 
lectively. I  can  even  now  recall  to  my  recollection  the  re- 
pulsive lineaments  of  their  respective  Tartar  physiognomies. 
The  employees  looked  at  us  with  curiosity,  wondering  what 
on  earth  induced  two  Englishmen  to  place  themselves  vol- 
untarily in  their  clutches,  a  sentiment  in  which  I  began 
equally  to  share  :  the  Christian  passengers  felt  for  us  prob- 
ably as  much  compassion  as  we  did  for  them  ;  while  the 
Jews  vainly  strove  to  hit  upon  some  device  by  which  we 
might  be  turned  to  pecuniary  account. 

At  last  came  a  message  from  the  general  commanding  in 
chief,  to  the  effect  that  he  would  be  glad  to  see  us.  The  long- 
closed  portals  opened  wide  to  let  us  through,  and  we  found 
ourselves  in  the  broad,  muddy  streets  of  the  straggling  Rus- 
sian town.  Upon  reaching  the  general's  residence,  we  were 
given  to  understand  by  an  aide-de-camp  that  the  eight  hours' 
delay  had  been  caused  by  a  deliberation  on  the  part  of  Gen- 
eral Kreuter  as  to  whether,  considering  our  evidently  dan- 
gerous character,  he  could  permit  us  to  enter  the  country, 
and  that  he  had  reluctantly  been  compelled  to  decide  against 
our  admission.  As  this  seemed  scarcely  warranted  by  the 
objects  found  in  our  luggage,  we  asked  permission  to  see  his 
excellency,  who  shortly  afterwards  appeared  himself,  and  in- 
formed us  that  the  only  concession  he  could  make  in  our  fa- 
vor was  to  send  us  to  Kief,  the  seat  of  government,  to  which 
city  the  breastpin,  the  piece  of  old  newspaper,  the  "  Brad- 
shaw,"  the  sheet  of  note-paper,  the  map,  the  French  novel,  and 
the  metallic  note-book  would  be  safely  forwarded,  and  there 
delivered  to  us,  if  in  the  opinion  of  General  AnnenkofF,  the 
governor,  we  deserved  to  have  them  back.  We  now  began 
to  suspect  the  real  cause  of  the  delay.     It  was  evident  that 


28o  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE    OF   ADVENTURE. 

General  Kreuter  and  General  Annenkoff  had  been  in  hot 
telegraphic  communication  on  our  account,  and  that  the  re- 
sult was  the  alternative  now  presented  to  us,  of  proceeding 
to  Kief  or  returning  to  Austria.  As  Kief  was  distant  about 
four  days'  journey  in  exactly  the  opposite  direction  to  that 
in  which  we  wished  to  go,  we  declined  the  opportunity  af- 
forded to  us  of  seeing  this  part  of  Russia,  and  requested  to 
know  exactly  the  reason  of  our  not  being  allowed  to  go  to 
Kamienetz.  Even  the  general  could  hardly  venture  to  find 
in  the  confiscated  articles  alone  a  sufficient  cause  for  our 
prohibition,  so  he  added  to  it  a  paternal  solicitude  for  our 
safety.  The  country,  he  said,  was  in  such  a  disturbed  condi- 
tion that  he  could  not  answer  for  our  safety.  As  at  this 
time  the  St.  Petersburg  journals  were  insisting  that  Volhynia 
was  profoundly  tranquil,  we  were  rather  surprised  to  find  the 
assertions  of  the  Poles  to  the  contrary  thus  strongly  corrobo- 
rated by  so  good  an  authority  —  at  the  same  time,  we  ex- 
pressed our  willingness  to  incur  the  risk.  It  did  indeed  seem 
curious,  if,  as  was  assumed,  we  were  dangerous  Polish  emis- 
saries, that  our  safety  should  be  a  matter  of  much  concern  to 
the  Russians  ;  while  it  was  evident  that  in  that  character  the 
only  thing  we  had  to  fear  was  from  their  own  soldiery,  who, 
if  they  murdered  two  unarmed  travellers,  would  fully  justify 
the  reports  which  were  current  of  their  cruelty.  However, 
we  did  not  think  it  expedient  to  submit  these  arguments  ; 
probably  the  order,  and  not  the  logic,  had  been  transmitted 
by  telegraph,  and  both  we  and  the  general  had  to  obey  it : 
indeed,  we  had  no  reason  to  complain  of  the  latter,  who  had 
treated  us  with  much  civility,  and  most  likely  exceeded  his 
instructions  when  he  good-naturedly  gave  us  permission  to 
pass  the  night  in  the  village.  It  was  now  late,  and  we  were 
famishing  :  as  usual,  we  had  recourse  to  a  Jew  in  our  extrem- 
ity, who  possessed  a  miserable  cottage,  which  he  called  an 
inn,  and  where  at  least  we  found  tough  meat  and  dirty  mat- 
tresses. Our  Brody  driver,  who  had  been  in  a  state  of  revolt 
all  day,  was  soothed  by  a  large  gratuity ;  and  the  wretched 


TWENTY-FOUR    HOURS   IN   VOLHYNIA.  28 1' 

nags  which  had  shared  our  misery  were  at  last  detached 
from  the  carriage  in  which  they  had  spent  twelve  hours  with- 
out food.  Finally,  under  the  benign  influence  of  a  Russian 
somovar  and  tobacco,  we  consoled  ourselves  for  the  fatigues 
and  disappointments  of  the  day. 

We  employed  our  first  hour  of  the  following  morning  in 
strolling  about  the  village.  There  was  not  much  to  be  seen 
— low  houses  in  ragged  gardens,  or  rather  waste  plots  of 
ground,  detached  from  each  other  and  separated  by  walls 
from  the  streets,  which  are  overshadowed  by  avenues  of  trees, 
and  in  winter  are  knee-deep  in  mud,  that  is  exchanged  for 
dust  in  summer.  The  principal  element  in  the  population 
seemed  to  be  military;  soldiers  were  loitering  in  every  direc- 
tion, as  it  was  rumored  that  another  expedition  was  destined 
to  cross  the  frontier  in  the  neighborhood  ;  troops  were  massed 
here  in  large  quantities,  and  all  the  necessary  dispositions 
made  to  give  the  insurgents  a  warm  reception.  I  afterwards 
heard  that  an  attempt  was  subsequently  made  to  cross  the 
frontier  higher  up,  which  had  resulted  in  failure.  The  streets 
of  Radziviloff  had  been  the  scene  of  bloody  fighting  a  few 
weeks  prior  to  our  visit,  in  consequence  of  the  ill-judged  at- 
tempts on  the  part  of  Wysocki  and  the  leaders  of  the  expe- 
dition to  take  possession  of  the  town.  Not  warned  by  the  fa- 
tal disaster  of  Miechow,  which  cost  the  lives  of  so  many  brave 
men,  the  Poles  seemed  to  think  that  the  capture  of  a  town 
was  a  profitable  military  operation.  As  the  Russians  were 
nearly  always  superior  in  numbers,  they  only  needed  the  ad- 
vantageous position  afforded  by  the  streets  of  a  town  to  ren- 
der the  chances  of  their  assailants  hopeless  ;  and  it  did  not 
require  a  military  eye  to  see  that  Radziviloff  might  be  suc- 
cessfully defended  against  a  much  larger  force  than  the 
Poles  could  possibly  bring  against  it.  On  our  return  to  our 
humble  abode,  we  found  a  Polish  gentleman  who  had  ar- 
rived for  the  purpose  of  paying  his  contribution  into  the  cof- 
fers of  the  Russian  government,  for  the  suppression  of  the 
rebellion  in  whioh  he  sympathized.     He  was  afraid  to  be 


282  EPISODES  IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

seen  speaking  to  us ;  indeed,  we  had  already  found,  on  the 
previous  evening,  that  we  were  spurned  by  one  or  two  of  the 
"respectable"  inhabitants ;  but  this  poor  man  would  have 
been  only  too  glad  to  pour  out  his  woes  to  us  had  he  dared, 
for  he  soon  saw  that  we  were  to  be  trusted  ;  but  he  hurried 
away  after  giving  vent  to  a  curse  and  a  groan,  saying  he  had 
already  lingered  in  our  company  too  long. 

We  were  by  this  time  more  anxious  to  leave  Russia  than 
we  had  been  to  enter  it ;  indeed,  in  the  course  of  several 
visits  to  that  country,  I  have  invariably  found  this  to  be  the 
case.  The  only  inconvenience  is,  that  instead  of  being  glad 
to  get  rid  of  one,  the  officials  make  as  many  difficulties  in 
letting  you  out  as  they  do  in  letting  you  in.  We  had  given 
up  our  passports  on  the  previous  morning,  and  had  never 
seen  them  since,  and  of  course  we  could  not  leave  the  coun- 
try until  they  had  been  returned  to  us.  So  we  found  our- 
selves again  sitting  disconsolately  in  our  carriage  between 
the  wooden  gates.  The  real  object  of  this  detention  was  to 
extort  a  heavy  bribe,  without  which,  we  were  assured,  we 
should  never  get  our  passports :  indeed,  one  of  the  minor 
employees,  taking  compassion  upon  us,  informed  us  in  an  un- 
dertone that  if  we  wished  to  get  our  passports  back  we  must 
make  it  worth  the  director's  while  to  give  them  up.  If  our 
informant  expected  a  fee  for  this  piece  of  intelligence,  he 
was  disappointed  ;  and  the  rapid  transition  from  silkiness  to 
sulkiness  which  his  manner  underwent  when  he  found  we 
were  obdurate,  warranted  the  suspicion.  If  we  were  to  be 
treated  to  twenty-four  hours  of  worry  in  Russia,  we  deter- 
mined not  to  pay  for  the  luxury  as  well.  The  only  melan- 
choly satisfaction  remaining  to  us  was  the  reflection  that  we 
had  caused  a  great  deal  of  trouble  to  everybod}^,  and  been  a 
source  of  profit  to  no  one.  So  we  sat  obstinately  in  our  car- 
riage, and  the  crowd  of  the  day  before  stared  and  laughed 
and  wondered.  It  was  a  mystery  to  the  whole  world  of  Rad- 
ziviloff,  employees  included,  that  we  should  be  too  danger- 
ous to  be  admitted  into  the  country,  and  yet  not  dangerous 


TWENTY-FOUR   HOURS    IN   VOLHYNIA'.  283 

enough  to  be  imprisoned.  It  did  not  seem  that  the  middle 
course  of  turning  people  back  had  ever  yet  been  adopted  at 
Radziviloff,  and  the  speculations  of  the  night  before  as  to 
our  character  and  purpose  reached  a  much  higher  pitch  in 
the  morning.  At  last  our  patience  was  exhausted,  and  be- 
fore either  the  guard  or  the  officials  suspected  our  design, 
we  jumped  out  of  the  carriage,  ran  back  through  the  wicket 
which  led  into  the  town,  and  hurried  straight  to  the  general's 
house,  with  the  view  of  laying  our  complaints  before  him. 
Just  as  we  reached  the  gate  the  shout  of  a  breathless  official 
reached  our  ears ;  the  sulky  had  again  become  the  silky  one. 
"  Our  passports  were  ready ;"  "  what  a  hurry  we  were  in  !"  "  the 
director  was  waiting  to  offer  us  every  facility,"  etc.  We 
found  on  our  return  that  our  rush  towards  the  general's  had 
produced  quite  a  magical  effect;  there  was  emprcssejiient 
everywhere.  One  man  handed  us  our  passports,  covered 
with  Russian  writing,  another  presented  me  with  my  breast- 
pin and  letter  of  introduction,  together  with  the  metallic 
note-book.  The  map  had  been  altogether  confiscated,  and 
forwarded  to  Kief  as  a  glaring  evidence  of  the  deep-laid 
plot  in  which  we  had  been  implicated.  As  this  map  had 
been  bought  by  a  friend  at  Artaria's  in  Vienna,  and  chosen 
expressly  because  it  was  devoid  of  every  political  character, 
we  may  hope  that  the  official  mind  of  Kief  was  long  intently 
absorbed  in  the  futile  attempt  to  discover  the  hidden  signifi- 
cance which  it  might  contain.  But  the  most  singular  in- 
stance of  aberration  of  intellect  on  the  part  of  frontier  func- 
tionaries which  ever  came  under  my  notice  was  to  be  found 
in  the  importance  which  they  attached  to  the  "  Bradshaw,"  the 
French  novel,  and  the  piece  of  dirty  old  newspaper :  these 
were  carefully  made  into  a  packet,  and  intrusted  to  the  charge 
of  a  mounted  Cossack,  who  was  to  accompany  us  to  the  Aus- 
trian frontier.  On  no  account  would  they  trust  these  dan- 
gerous books  in  the  carriage  with  us.  We  even  offered  to 
leave  "  Bradshaw  "  behind  us  as  a  token  of  our  friendship,  on 
condition  that  they  would  read  it;  but,  seeing  that  we  had  de- 


284  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE    OF    ADVENTURE. 

termined  not  to  corrupt  them  with  money,  they  became  in- 
corruptible when  it  came  to  taking  a  Hterary  present,  and 
conscientiously  insisted  upon  returning  us  that  valuable  work. 
Thus,  after  having  spent  exactly  twenty-four  hours  in  Vol- 
hynia,  the  greater  part  of  the  time  between  two  gates,  we 
bade  a  final  farewell  to  the  provinces  of  Russian  Poland,  and 
careered  over  the  plain  towards  Brody,  preceded  always  by  a 
ferocious-looking  Cossack  carrying  "  Bradshaw."  On  arriving 
at  the  Austrian  frontier,  he  presented  it  to  us  with  great  form 
and  ceremony,  as  if  he  were  restoring  us  our  swords,  of  which, 
after  an  unsuccessful  combat  with  an  honorable  enemy,  we 
had  been  temporarily  deprived  ;  while  we,  once  more  armed 
with  our  Railway  Guide,  bade  him  a  reckless  and  defiant 
adieu,  and  hugged  to  our  grateful  bosoms  that  true  evidence 
of  an  enlightened  country  in  an  advanced  state  of  civilization. 
In  the  meantime  we  had  a  month's  journey  with  post-horses 
to  look  forward  to,  before  we  were  again  likely  to  hear  the 
familiar  scream  of  the  locomotive. 

I  think  it  likely  that  the  real  cause  of  our  arrest  on  this 
occasion  was  the  result  of  an  episode  which  had  occurred  to 
me  in  Cracow  in  the  spring.  I  received  a  peremptory  sum- 
mons one  morning  to  present  myself  at  the  police  office,  and 
my  heart  throbbed  with  the  beating  of  a  guilty  conscience, 
for,  to  oblige  a  lady,  I  had  so  far  compromised  myself  as  to 
be  the  means  of  secretly  conveying  a  note  to  a  prisoner  to 
whom  she  was  attached ;  but  how  could  I  have  been  inhuman 
enough  to  resist  the  pleading  voice  of  so  charming  a  creature? 
Now  I  thought  it  just  possible  that  this  correspondence  might 
have  been  discovered,  and  that,  instead  of  conveying  the 
expression  of  a  tender  sentiment,  it  might  have  had  some 
deep  political  significance.  Patriotic  young  Polish  ladies 
were  capable  of  anything  in  their  country's  cause  at  that 
time.  So,  with  inward  trembling,  but  with  an  outwardly  de- 
fiant attitude,  I  appeared  before  the  herr  inspector.  I  was 
relieved  to  find  that  he  was  a  feeble-looking  old  man,  with 
large  goggle  spectacles.    After  solemnly  considering  me  from 


TWENTY-FOUR    HOURS    IN   VOLHYNIA.  285 

head  to  foot,  he  opened  a  large  book,  and  with  serious  im- 
pressiveness  asked  me  where  I  was  born, 

^^  Afn  Cap  ter  guter  Ifoffmrng,'"  I  answered,  flippantly. 
The  idea  of  any  one  having  been  born  at  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope  was  so  amazing  that  he  ejaculated,  ^'■Jlerr  I'i??"  and 
took  off  his  spectacles  in  his  astonishment,  on  which  a  bright 
idea  suddenly  flashed  upon  me,  for  it  was  evident  that  my 
interrogator  was  an  impressionable  and  somewhat  simple 
person.  After  my  nationality  had  been  established,  he  ques- 
tioned me  as  to  whether  I  was  married. 

"  Vier"  I  promptly  replied,  holding  up  four  fingers. 

"Is  one  alive  now?"  he  asked. 

"  Oh,  they  are  all  alive." 

"  Impossible,"  he  said ;  "  nobody  is  allowed  more  than 
one  wife  at  a  time." 

"Oh,  pardon  me,  Mohammedans  are  allowed  four,  and  I 
am  a  Mohammedan  naturally;  being  born  at  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope,  you  know  I  must  be ;"  and  I  went  off  at  score 
in  abominable  German  in  an  attempt  to  explain  to  him  the 
merits  of  the  Moslem  faith.  He  was  evidently  rapidly  com- 
ing to  the  conclusion  that  I  was  mad,  which  was  the  one  I 
was  anxious  he  should  arrive  at. 

"What  are  you  doing  here?"  he  interrupted,  impatiently. 
"We  have  reason  to  think  you  are  meddling  with  politics." 

"  Reason  to  think !"  I  exclaimed,  "  why,  I  am  the  heart 
and  soul  of  the  movement ;  there  would  have  been  no  Polish 
insurrection  but  for  me."  I  then  went  on  in  a  rambling 
manner  to  discourse  upon  my  own  importance,  during  which 
I  observed  him  writing. 

"  What  are  you  writing  ?"  I  inquired. 
"  I  am  saying  that  you  came  to  Cracow  to  see  the  antiqui- 
ties." 

To  this  I  vehemently  objected,  adhering  strongly  to  my 
political  motives;  but  he  would  not  listen,  and  benevolent- 
ly waved  me  out  of  the  room  as  a  hopeless  and  harmless 
lunatic. 


286  EPISODES   IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

I  left  the  clay  after  for  Warsaw ;  but  as  the  Russian  and 
Austrian  police  were  in  close  relations,  it  is  not  impossible 
that  this  incident,  taken  in  conjunction  with  my  visit  to  the 
insurgent  band,  may  both  have  come  to  the  knowledge  of 
the  Russian  police,  and  that  my  name  was  inscribed  in  their 
books  as  being  not  so  harmless  as  the  Cracow  inspector  had 
imagined. 

It  is  a  long  day's  journey  from  Brody  to  Tarnopol;  the 
road  first  ascends  a  range  of  wooded  hills,  on  the  summit 
of  which  stands  the  old  castle  of  Podhorsce,  commanding 
a  magnificent  view,  and  full  of  old  armor  and  relics  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  Then,  winding  down  through  romantic  glens, 
it  debouches  on  the  undulating  corn-country  which  extends 
in  uniform  monotony  all  the  way  to  the  Black  Sea.  There 
is  nothing,  in  a  picturesque  point  of  view,  to  interest  the  trav- 
eller as  he  journeys  over  these  boundless  steppes;  but  he 
will  be  struck  with  amazement  at  their  vast  cereal  resources, 
which  the  railway,  since  completed,  has  done  so  much  to 
develop.  Tarnopol  is  a  dull,  dirty  town,  with  a  large  central 
square,  and  a  population  of  about  twenty  thousand  inhabi- 
tants ;  of  which  eight  thousand  are  Poles,  two  thousand  for- 
eigners, and  the  rest  Jews.  It  was  only  interesting  in  a 
political  point  of  view,  from  the  fact  that  a  large  expedition 
was  supposed  to  be  collecting  in  the  neighborhood  for  the 
purpose  of  crossing  the  Russian  frontier,  distant  about  twenty 
miles.  As,  however,  this  rumor  was  in  everybody's  mouth, 
and  even  the  waiter  of  the  hotel  gave  us  confidential  infor- 
mation on  the  subject,  we  did  not  think  that  a  project,  if  it 
really  existed,  which  was  already  so  public,  was  ever  likely 
to  be  put  into  execution ;  and,  in  fact,  we  have  never  after- 
wards heard  of  the  operations  of  any  band  from  this  quarter. 
It  is  possible  that,  had  we  tried,  we  should  have  been  more 
fortunate  in  an  attempt  to  penetrate  into  Volhynia  from  this 
point ;  but  we  were  satisfied  with  the  experiences  I  have 
already  recounted,  and  contented  ourselves  with  obtaining 
information  with  reference  to  the  state  of  the  province  from 


TWENTY-FOUR    HOURS    IN    VOLHYNIA.  287 

Poles  who  had  just  left  it,  or  who  owned  property  in  it.  It 
would  seem  that  the  danger  to  which,  probably,  General 
Kreuter  alluded,  and  which  we  had  to  fear  in  travelling 
through  the  country,  consisted  in  the  chance  of  meeting  with 
armed  bands  of  peasants,  invested  by  the  Russian  govern- 
ment with  the  functions  of  police,  which  they  exercised  much 
to  the  benefit  of  their  own  pockets  and  the  detriment  of 
peaceable  wayfarers.  While  all  the  landed  proprietary  of 
the'  province  are  Poles,  the  peasantry  are  for  the  most  part 
Ruthenian,  who  had  no  sympathy  with  the  movement;  and 
who,  although  by  no  means  attached  to  the  Russian  govern- 
ment, had  been  easily  bribed  by  the  latter,  by  the  prospect  of 
plunder,  to  side  with  it.  It  is  only  due  to  the  peasantry  to  say 
that  in  many  instances  they  had  resisted  every  temptation, 
and  remained  faithful  to  their  masters.  One  of  our  motives 
for  visiting  the  country  just  at  this  period  was  a  desire  to  be 
present  at  some  of  the  sales  of  sequestrated  property,  which 
were  taking  place  daily.  These  sales  were  expressly  arranged 
for  the  benefit  of  the  peasantry.  One  of  my  friends,  for  in- 
stance, who  was  a  Galician  as  well  as  a  Volhynian  proprietor, 
was  called  upon  to  pay  to  the  Russian  government  a  sum 
equal  to  ^8000  for  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion.  As  he 
had  carefully  abstained  from  taking  part  in  the  movement, 
the  amount  of  this  tax  in  itself  was  sufficiently  onerous;  but 
lest  he  should  be  in  a  condition  to  procure  that  sum  at  short 
notice,  he  was  only  allowed  three  days  to  raise  it*,  and  as  he 
was  not  resident  in  Volhynia,  it  was  manifestly  impossible 
for  him  to  make  the  necessary  arrangements.  In  default  of 
prompt  payment  the  live-stock  of  the  proprietor  was  put  up 
at  auction  among  the  peasants,  who  were  thus  enabled  to 
purchase  their  masters'  horses  at  a  shilling  apiece;  and 
merino  sheep  have  been  known  to  sell  for  as  little  as  three- 
halfpence  each.  In  other  words,  the  peasantry  receive  a 
present  of  their  master's  stock,  while  he  is  deprived  of  the 
means  of  getting  in  his  crop  or  working  his  land,  and  is  still 
obliged  to  pay  the  difference  between  the  trifling  amount 


288  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE    OF    ADVENTURE. 

which  his  property  has  realized,  and  the  sum  originally  de- 
manded by  the  government.  'We  heard,  however,  that  the 
peasantry  were  becoming  unmanageable  and  independent  in 
their  bearing  towards  the  government  which  has  thus  spoiled 
them,  and  complained  of  being  obliged  to  pay  to  the  govern- 
ment the  tax  properly  due  to  the  proprietor,  in  compensation 
for  the  land  which  was  originally  his,  and  had  by  a  recent 
arrangement  been  transferred  to  the  peasant.  Having  paid 
only  a  nominal  sum  for  their  cattle,  they  now  wanted  to 'get 
the  land  for  nothing  as  well ;  and  it  was  some  consolation 
to  the  proprietor,  who  had  been  robbed  of  both,  to  see  the 
thieves  fall  out.  The  position  of  a  country  gentleman  in 
these  provinces  was  in  fact  becoming  intolerable :  not  allowed 
to  leave  the  country,  he  was  constantly  subjected  to  the  sus- 
picion of  the  government  while  he  remained  in  it,  and  too 
often  found  himself  at  last  an  unwilling  occupant  of  a  dismal 
cell,  or  one  of  a  melancholy  cortege  on  its  way  to  Siberia, 
Those  who  were  fortunate  enough  to  procure  passports  at 
the  commencement  of  the  movement  fled  the  country;  those 
who  were  left  were  in  most  instances  arrested,  so  that  scarce- 
ly a  property  remained  tenanted.  Any  who  had  been  dis- 
creet or  lucky  enough  to  be  left  at  liberty  had  been  called 
upon,  on  the  one  hand  by  the  Russian,  and  on  the  other  by 
the  Polish  national  government,  to  pay  heavy  contributions. 
In  both  instances  the  payment  was  compulsory,  while  the 
constant  presence  of  armed  bands  of  disorderly  peasants,  or 
of  Cossacks,  rendered  daily  life  unsafe.  One  gentleman, 
who  had  been  most  fortunately  circumstanced  throughout 
in  comparison  with  many  of  his  compatriots,  assured  me 
that  the  movement  had  already  been  a  clear  loss  to  him  of 
;^25,ooo ;  and  that,  in  the  event  of  its  lasting  through  another 
year,  he  would  be  a  sufTerer  to  a  still  greater  amount. 

From  Tarnopol  we  posted  through  to  Jassy,  travelling 
only  by  day,  and  enabled  by  our  method  of  locomotion  to 
come  into  closer  contact  with  the  population  which  inhabits 
the  comparatively  little  known  districts  'of  the  Bukovine  and 


TWENTY-FOUR    HOURS    IN    VOLHYNIA.  289 

Moldavia  that  we  traversed,  than  is  possible  now  that  one 
is  whirled  by  railway,  with  no  other  variety  than  a  different 
station  and  station-master.  This  consideration  was  very  for- 
cibly impressed  upon  my  mind  five  years  ago,  when  I  again 
had  occasion  to  visit  Brody,  this  time  as  the  emissary  of  the 
Mansion  House  Committee,  for  the  purpose  of  distributing 
relief  to  some  fifteen  thousand  distressed  Russian  refugee 
Jews,  who  had  taken  refuge  there  in  a  starving  condition, 
and  when  my  experiences,  had  I  time  to  narrate  them  here, 
were  as  painful  as  they  were  novel  and  interesting.  I  then 
made  the  journey  from  Brody  to  Jassy  by  rail;  and  so  in- 
tensely wrought  up  were  the  expectations  of  the  much-suffer- 
ing race  who  form  the  largest  proportion  of  the  population 
of  this  part  of  Europe,  that  at  every  station  they  were  assem- 
bled in  crowds  with  petitions  to  be  transported  to  Palestine, 
the  conviction  apparently  having  taken  possession  of  their 
minds  that  the  time  appointed  for  their  return  to  the  land 
of  their  ancestors  had  arrived,  and  that  I  was  to  be  their 
Moses  on  the  occasion. 

The  nineteen  years  which  elapsed  between  my  two  visits 
to  Jassy  had  worked  a  great  change  in  this  latter  town,  which 
on  the  first  occasion  still  retained  many  of  its  Eastern  char- 
acteristics, and  was,  in  comparison  to  what  it  is  now,  in  a 
condition  of  relative  barbarism.  From  a  mere  tourist  point 
of  view,  it  was,  however,  far  more  interesting;  and  during 
our  stay  in  it  for  a  week,  we  had  abundant  opportunity  of 
testing  its  peculiar  social  characteristics  and  attractions. 
One  night  at  the  opera,  in  the  box  of  a  friend,  much  to  our 
surprise,  we  met  a  nun,  a  very  charming  person,  to  whom 
we  were  introduced,  and  who  explained  that  she  was  on  three 
weeks'  leave  from  her  convent,  which  was  situated  in  a  val- 
ley of  the  Carpathian  mountains.  She  further  explained 
that  it  was  the  custom  in  Moldavia  for  nuns  to  invite  their 
gentlemen  friends  to  pay  them  visits  in  their  nunneries. 
She  hoped  we  would  accept  her  invitation  to  pay  Agapia, 
which  was  the  name  of  her  nunnery,  a  visit,  and  spend  there 
13 


29©  EPISODES   IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

as  many  clays  as  we  liked.  She  only  regretted  her  own  un- 
avoidable absence.  There  was  a  refreshing  novelty  about 
such  an  invitation  which  it  was  quite  impossible  to  resist. 
We  were  assured  by  those  who  knew  all  about  it  that  we 
should  find  the  scenery  most  attractive,  the  hospitality  un- 
bounded, and  that  on  the  way  we  should  have  an  opportunity 
of  visiting  a  most  interesting  monastery  called  Nyamptz, 
while  some  kind  friends  offered  us  letters  of  introduction  to 
another  convent,  by  name  Veratica;  and  so  it  came  about 
that,  instead  of  looking  for  bands  of  Polish  insurgents  in  the 
Ruthenian  provinces  of  Russia,  we  found  ourselves  bound 
on  a  tour  of  visits  to  Greek  monasteries  and  convents  in  the 
wild  Moldavian  valleys  of  the  Carpathian  Mountains.  We 
soon  made  our  preparations  to  post  to  Nyamptz,  two  of  our 
Jassy  friends  kindly  volunteering  to  accompany  us  to  that 
monastery,  and  do  the  honors  of  the  establishment. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

A  VISIT  TO  THE   CONVENTS    OF    MOLDAVIA. 

It  was  ten  o'clock  at  night  before  we  had  bidden  our  last 
adieux  and  galloped  out  of  Jassy.  I  say  galloped  advisedly, 
for  we  were  in  two  light,  open  carriages  and  four,  and  Mol- 
davian postilions  have  no  notion  of  letting  the  grass  grow 
under  their  wheels.  Indeed,  it  is  to  be  regretted  it  does  not, 
for  one  would  be  spared  the  dust.  It  does  not,  however, 
produce  the  slightest  effect  upon  the  picturesque-looking 
ruffian  who,  riding  one  horse,  does  nothing  but  yell  and  crack 
his  whip  over  the  other  three  ;  and  whose  chief  object  seems 
to  be,  not  only  to  make  as  much  dust  as  possible  himself, 
but  to  keep  well  in  the  cloud  caused  by  the  carriage  ahead. 
Any  how,  it  is  exhilarating  to  whisk  through  the  crisp  night 
air,  venfre  a  terre,  even  though  one  is  half  choked.  When 
day  broke,  Jassy  was  sixty  miles  off.  We  had  been  dreamily 
conscious  of  having  changed  horses  occasionally,  and  of  hav- 
ing undergone  violent  jolting,  and  now  we  felt  the  need  of 
something  warm.  A  Moldavian  post-house  is  generally  a 
thatched  hut,  the  inside  of  which  consists  of  a  large  fireplace, 
big  enough  to  dine  in  as  well  as  to  cook  one's  dinner ;  and 
at  this  early  hour  the  family  was  lying  asleep  promiscuously. 
However,  they  gave  us  hot  water  and  milk,  and  wondered  in- 
tensely at  such  singular  specimens  of  humanity  as  we  seemed 
to  them.  Then  we  descended  into  the  pretty  valley  of  the 
Moldavia,  and,  crossing  that  stream,  entered  the  town  of 
Nyamptz  just  as  a  heavy  shower  of  rain  came  down  to  turn 
the  dust  into  mud  all  over  our  bodies.  Nyamptz  is  prettily 
situated  at  the  foot  of  the  lowest  spur  of  the  Carpathians,  on 


292  EPISODES    IN    A    LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

the  river  of  the  same  name.  Our  intended  visit  had  been 
notified  to  the  sub-prefect  from  Jassy,  and  we  found  that 
worthy  waiting,  in  the  most  obsequious  attitude,  for  our  ar- 
rival. The  whole  town  was  in  a  fever  of  excitement  at  the 
unwonted  event  of  a  visit  from  distinguished  strangers,  and 
any  one  who  was  in  an  official  position  cringed  and  crawled 
about  us  after  the  manner  of  Neapolitan  impiegtiati,  in  the 
hope  that  we  might  possess  influence  and  use  it  to  their  ad- 
vantage. Nothing  would  induce  them  to  leave  us  alone.  Not 
only  would  they  stand  over  us  while  at  breakfast,  but  insisted 
upon  accompanying  us  to  the  convents,  attended  by  a  mount- 
ed escort.  The  standard  of  intelligence  of  these  gentry  may 
be  judged  of  by  the  answer  which  the  chief  official  gave  when 
we  asked  him  what  o'clock  it  was  ?  With  the  utmost  naivetk 
he  informed  us  that  the  only  people  who  knew  the  time  were 
the  Jews  ;  and  as  it  was  a  Jews'  holiday,  and  they  were  all  in 
their  houses,  it  was  not  possible  for  him  to  let  us  know  what 
the  hour  was.  He  was  extremely  proud  of  two  schools,  how- 
ever— one  containing  one  hundred  boys,  and  the  other  sixty 
girls — of  which  this  town  of  eight  thousand  inhabitants  could 
boast ;  but  his  statistical  knowledge  in  other  respects  was 
limited. 

The  whole  population  turned  out  to  see  the  cortege  as  we 
drove  away.  Half  a  dozen  imposing  horsemen,  in  a  sort  of 
janissary  uniform,  and  with  immense  swagger,  led  the  way; 
then  followed  sundry  carriages  and  carts  full  of  officials,  and 
then  ourselves,  with  postilions  ver}'^  highly  decorated  for  the 
occasion.  We  might  have  been  Garibaldi,  so  humbly  did 
the  people  bow  before  us,  and  with  such  gracious  dignity  did 
we  return  their  salutes.  Whether  they  supposed  we  had 
come  to  annex  them,  or  whether  they  were  simply  overawed 
by  the  majesty  of  our  appearance,  must  forever  remain  a 
mystery ;  certain  it  is,  we  acted  royally  all  the  way  down  the 
long  street,  and  bowed  ourselves  into  the  ford  of  the  river, 
and  away  into  the  happy  valley  beyond,  at  the  head  of  which 
the  monastery  of  Nyamptz  is  situated.     Here  we  had  noth- 


A   VISIT   TO    THE   CONVENTS    OF    MOLDAVIA.  293 

ing  to  do  but  revel  in  the  glorious  scenery,  doubly  refreshing 
after  the  monotony  to  which  for  some  weeks  past  we  had 
been  doomed.  Swelling  hills,  rising  into  blue  mountains  in 
the  distance,  but  near  us  covered  with  oak  and  maple  woods, 
bright  with  the  fiery  tints  of  autumn  ;  green  meadows  and 
fields  of  melons  and  Indian  corn  ;  cottages  half  concealed  by 
orchards,  from  which  smoke  curled  languidly  in  the  humid 
air — for  the  rain  had  ceased,  and  left  a  fresh,  soft  feeling,  de- 
lightful after  long  days  of  blazing  sun  ;  a  precipice  rising 
abruptly  from  the  river-bed,  and  the  crumbling  ruins  of  the 
once  extensive  Castle  of  Nyamptz  perched  on  its  dizzy  edge 
— these  were  sights  that  made  our  drive  along  the  grassy 
track  up  the  valley  a  perfect  luxury  •  and  when  at  last  it  nar- 
rowed, and  we  dived  into  a  wood,  and  came  out  of  a  green 
glade  upon  a  massive,  straggling  pile  of  white  buildings,  with 
tin  cupolas  glittering  in  a  sudden  gleam  of  sunshine,  we 
thought  that  these  Nyamptz  monks  had  not  denied  them- 
selves the  most  exhaustless  of  pleasurable  emotions  —  the 
enjoyment  of  nature  under  its  fairest  aspect.  Five  members 
of  the  committee  of  direction  were  standing  upon  the  veran- 
da of  the  superior's  house  as  we  drove  up,  and,  in  the  absence 
of  that  dignitary,  the  dean,  a  man  with  meek  brown  eyes,  a 
gentle  smile,  and  an  auburn  beard,  did  the  honors.  Service 
was  going  on,  so  we  were  delayed  till  it  was  over,  and  re- 
galed with  the  invariable  preserve  and  water,  which  is  the 
first  form  of  Moldavian  hospitality.  Whether  the  sweet- 
meats are  an  excuse  for  the  water,  or  the  vyater  for  the  sweet- 
meats, or  both  for  the  cigarettes  which  immediately  follow,  is 
a  subject  open  to  discussion  ;  but  when  conversation  is  apt 
to  flag  from  ignorance  of  the  language  on  both  sides,  sweet- 
meats and  water  create  a  diversion,  and  rolling  cigarettes 
and  making  profuse  apologies  for  wanting  a  light,  help  to 
make  the  visit  go  off.  As  none  of  our  hosts  could  speak 
anything  but  Moldavian,  we  were  dependent  entirely  upon 
one  of  our  companions  from  Jassy  to  interpret,  and  the  whole 
committee  seemed  to  think  it  necessary  to  sit  in  solemn 


294  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

silence,  and  inspect  us  while  the  dean  answered  our  ques- 
tions. At  last  the  superior,  a  heavy,  unamiable-looking  man, 
with  an  iron-gray  beard,  appeared,  and  Hstened  while  our 
letter  of  introduction  was  read  aloud  to  him,  his  own  literary 
acquirements  being  of  the  most  meagre  description;  then  we 
ate  more  jam  together,  and  he  led  the  way  to  show  us  over 
the  establishment.  Scarcely  three  months  had  elapsed 
since  a  large  part  of  the  building  had  been  burned  down ; 
the  consequence  was,  that  a  great  deal  of  carpentering  and 
rebuilding  was  going  on  in  all  directions.  Unfortunately 
the  library  had  been  destroyed,  and,  besides  the  books,  much 
of  the  picturesque  effect  of  the  monastery  had  been  lost.  In 
the  centre  of  the  principal  courtyard  stands  the  church,  un- 
touched by  the  fire,  and  upwards  of  four  hundred  years  old. 
We  went  up  a  narrow  stair,  heavy  with  the  fumes  of  incense, 
where  a  large  collection  of  jewelry  and  ornaments,  the  gifts 
of  devoted  women,  were  displayed  before  us.  Enormous 
Bibles  covered  with  jewels,  and  ponderous  with  gold  and 
silver  decorations,  were  pulled  out,  and  the  quaint  MS.,  and 
illuminated  parchments  turned  over  for  our  inspection.  The 
oldest  Bible  was  one  in  Bulgarian  MS.,  dating  from  the  mid- 
dle of  the  fifteenth  century.  Then  we  were  taken  to  another 
smaller  church,  and  there,  with  great  form  and  ceremony 
our  cicerones  exhibited  their  principal  curiosity,  a  priest's 
robe  worked  by  the  hands  of  the  Empress  Catherine  herself, 
and  presented  to  the  monastery.  There  were  until  quite 
lately  nine  hundred  monks  in  the  monastery  of  Nyamptz  ; 
but  the  intrigues  of  a  much-abused  priest,  called  Vernouf, 
caused  a  secession  of  more  than  two  hundred,  who  have 
joined  the  affiliated  monasteries.  The  merits  of  this  quarrel 
were  too  complicated  for  me  to  understand  ;  moreover,  I  had 
no  opportunity  of  hearing  Vernouf's  side  of  it.  The  result 
has  been  a  deplorable  split.  Nyamptz  itself,  as  the  parent 
monastery,  contains  the  largest  number  of  monks.  At  the 
time  of  my  visit  there  were  four  hundred  and  seventy  in  resi- 
dence, but  a  good  many  get  leave  and  take  a  turn  in  the 


A   VISIT   TO   THE   CONVENTS   OF   MOLDAVIA.  295 

world  by  way  of  a  change.  There  are  six  similar  monas- 
teries affiliated  to  Nyamptz,  containing  between  them  seven 
hundred  and  sixty  monks.  They  are  all  situated  in  neigh- 
boring valleys.  Surrounding  the  main  building  are  grouped 
about  three  hundred  separate  cottages,  called,  by  a  figure  of 
speech,  cells,  but  really  charming  little  abodes,  covered  with 
honeysuckle  and  jasmine,  and  surrounded  by  flowers  or  vege- 
tables, according  to  the  aesthetic  or  material  tendencies  of 
the  owner.  Almost  every  monk  has  thus  his  own  little  abode, 
with  a  neat  wooden  palisading  round  it,  high  enough  to  pre- 
vent curious  eyes  from  prying,  and  enclosing  a  good  garden  ; 
besides  which,  he  can  cultivate  the  neighboring  land  to  any 
extent  he  likes.  This  village  of  scattered  cottages,  with  neat 
lanes  leading  between  them,  adds  indescribably  to  the  charm 
of  the  scene.  We  inspected  the  hospital,  which  was  very 
clean  and  admirably  kept ;  also  a  madhouse,  which  con- 
tained sixty  patients,  chiefly  epileptic.  Then  they  showed  us 
the  lock-up  for  refractory  monks,  four  of  whom  were  at  that 
moment  expiating  their  sins  on  bread  and  water.  By  a  new 
law  no  monk  is  allowed  to  take  the  vows  till  he  is  fifty ;  for- 
merly there  was  no  restriction,  and  several  of  the  monks  at 
Nyamptz  were  young  men.  We  were  informed  that  there 
were  upwards  of  a  hundred  v;ho  were  more  than  a  hundred 
years  of  age,  and  I  certainly  observed  some  very  patriarchal 
specimens.  The  revenues  of  Nyamptz  amounted  nominally 
to  a  sum  equal  to  about  ^20,000  a  year.  Prince  Couza  had, 
however,  appropriated  the  greater  portion  of  this  sum,  and 
made  an  allowance  to  each  monk  of  three  piastres  a  da}',  and 
two  hundred  and  fifty  ducats  a  year  for  his  clothes.  With 
this  arrangement  they  seemed  perfectly  satisfied.  To  ac- 
count for  what  appears  an  anomaly,  it  would  be  necessary  to 
enter  upon  the  question  of  the  dedicated  convents,  which, 
however,  is  too  dry  and  complicated  to  discuss  here. 

We  had  not  time  to  linger  long  at  the  monastery  of  Ny- 
amptz, though  we  were  hospitably  pressed  by  the  superior  to 
stay  there  for  as  many  days  as  we  chose.     Among  the  monks 


296  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE    OF   ADVENTURE. 

who  had  done  the  honors  was  a  fair-haired,  intelligent  man 
of  about  forty,  who  had  passed  many  years  of  his  life  in  wan- 
dering over  the  world.  He  had  made  a  pilgrimage  to  Mount 
Sinai,  and  visited  the  Greek  monasteries  in  Turkey  and  the 
East  generally.  Then,  obtaining  a  dispensation  of  two  years 
for  the  benefit  of  his  health,  he  travelled  through  Europe,  and, 
doffing  the  long  serge  robe  which  he  wore  now  as  a  monk, 
and  which  became  him  as  a  pilgrim,  had  visited,  as  a  layman, 
most  of  the  capitals  of  Europe  ;  had  flancd  upon  the  boule- 
vards in  Paris ;  had  sat  upon  iron  chairs  in  Rotten  Row ; 
and  had  even  pushed  his  explorations  as  far  as  Cremorne. 
The  consequence  was  that  he  was  a  thorough  man  of  the 
world.  He  spoke  French  perfectly  ;  was  extremely  tolerant 
in  his  religious  opinions,  and  enlightened  in  his  political  and 
theological  views.  There  were  few  subjects  he  could  not 
converse  upon,  and  I  was  never  tired  of  listening  to  the  sin- 
gular experiences  of  his  adventurous  life.  When,  therefore, 
the  superior  attached  him  to  us  as  guide,  philosopher,  and 
friend,  during  our  monastic  and  conventual  tour,  we  were 
well  satisfied  with  so  agreeable  and  intelligent  a  compan- 
ion, and  put  him  in  our  open  carriage  with  pleasure.  We 
got  rid  of  our  officious  friends  from  Nyamptz  here,  and,  fur- 
nished with  eight  horses  by  the  monastery,  we  spun  in  our 
light  carriage  over  grassy  glades  or  along  the  beds  of  moun- 
tain-torrents with  equal  indifference.  The  wild  post-boys 
never  looked  to  see  whether  we  were  jolting  about  on  our 
seats,  like  peas  on  a  frying-pan  —  little  recked  they  how  our 
springs  liked  it — away  we  went,  now  through  fiery-leaved  oak 
woods,  now  along  dark  valleys,  where  dense  pine  forests 
gave  warning  of  a  higher  elevation,  deeper  and  farther  into 
the  wild  Carpathians,  till,  as  the  shades  of  evening  were 
drawing  in,  we  took  the  steep  pitch  of  hill  at  a  gallop,  on  the 
top  of  which  is  situated  the  monastery  of  Seku,  and  dashed 
through  the  old  archway  into  a  courtyard,  where  a  group  of 
monks  gazed  opened-mouthed  at  the  unexpected  apparition. 
Since  leaving  Nyamptz  we  had  not  met  a  soul,  and  we  felt 


A   VISIT   TO   THE   CONVENTS   OF    MOLDAVIA.  297 

that  Seku,  buried  in  its  narrow  valley,  with  only  a  rough  track 
to  the  monastery,  and  no  road  beyond,  with  high  pine-clad 
hills  all  round,  and  only  one  outlet  to  the  world,  was,  in- 
deed, a  retreat  so  secluded  that  we  deserved  some  credit 
for  having  found  it. 

Seku  is  one  of  the  affiliated  monasteries,  and  only  con- 
tains two  hundred  and  fifty  monks  ;  unlike  Nyamptz,  the 
monks  do  not  live  in  cottages  apart,  except  in  a  few  in- 
stances, A  large  courtyard,  enclosed  by  a  double -storied 
range  of  buildings  with  two  galleries,  and  the  dormitory 
doors  opening  on  to  them,  furnishes  accommodation  to  the 
monks ;  and  in  the  centre,  as  usual,  surmounted  with  tin 
cupolas,  and  highly  ornamented  within,  is  the  church.  The 
great  curiosity  here  was  a  magnificent  piece  of  gold  embroid- 
ery presented  by  the  foundress  of  the  monastery  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years  ago ;  besides  were  many  quaint  old 
MSS.  on  vellum,  gorgeously  bound,  and  the  usual  collection 
of  jewels  and  altar  ornaments,  all  stored  away  in  old  presses, 
and  each  produced  in  due  form  for  our  inspection — a  crowd 
of  admiring  monks  examining  us  the  while  more  narrowly 
than  we  examined  their  ecclesiastical  treasures.  To  me  the 
romantic  situation  of  this  monastery,  the  utter  silence  of  the 
scene,  as  darkness  fell  upon  the  sombre  hillsides  and  only 
the  distant  murmur  of  the  mountain  torrent  broke  the  still- 
ness, was  more  impressive  than  the  wealth  of  "  the  founda- 
tion." It  recalled  to  my  mind  a  similar  scene  in  the  remote 
valleys  of  the  province  of  Kiang-su  in  China,  where  I  had 
been  the  guest  of  Buddhist  monks ;  nor  to  the  uninitiated  in 
the  externals  of  their  respective  theologies  was  there  any 
difference  to  be  seen  between  my  former  hosts  and  those  I 
was  now  visiting.  The  same  courtyards  and  sacred  edifices 
in  the  middle,  heavy  with  the  perfume  of  incense  ,  the  same 
presses  stored  with  ornaments ;  richly  decorated  altars  and 
monster  candles ;  above  all,  the  same  lazy  group  of  long- 
robed  brothers,  who  chose  the  most  out-of  the-way  corner  of 
the  world  they  could  find  to  live  in  and  do  nothing.  Inas- 
13* 


298  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

much  as  many  of  the  Moldavian  monks  cannot  read,  and 
none  of  them,  with  one  or  two  exceptions,  know  any  other 
language  than  Moldavian,  they  have  not  even  the  excuse  of 
study  to  justify  their  life  of  utter  sloth.  With  the  Buddhist, 
it  is  more  or  less  conducive  to  that  state  of  "Nirvana"  which  it 
is  the  object  of  his  ambition  in  this  life  and  the  next  to  attain. 
But  the  Greek  monk  attains  it  in  spite  of  himself.  To  all  in- 
tents and  purposes  he  is  as  much  buried,  and  as  utterly  use- 
less to  the  world  at  large  shut  up  in  this  valley,  as  if  he  were 
actually  under  the  sod.  Nor  can  one  discover  any  palpable 
difference  between  religions  which  produce  such  exactly 
similar  results.  It  is  true  that  the  Greek  monks  appear  to 
wash  more  than  the  Buddhist,  and  never  cut  their  hair,  in- 
stead of  shaving  their  heads  ;  otherwise  the  cut  of  the  robe  is 
exactly  the  same,  only  in  China  it  is  either  yellow  or  lavender, 
here  it  is  a  reddish  brown.  The  service  in  a  Buddhist  place 
of  worship  is  intoned  in  the  same  key  as  here,  nor  do  the 
priests  seem  to  attend  more  to  what  they  are  saying  among 
the  Greeks  than  among  the  Buddhists ;  but  it  is  performed 
more  constantly  among  the  latter,  and,  of  course,  the  divini- 
ties invoked  go  under  other  names.  To  the  ignorant  and 
impartial  spectator  these  are  the  only  observable  points  of 
distinction  between  the  two  establishments. 

Altogether  we  were  not  captivated  by  anything  we  saw  at 
Seku  except  its  position,  and  resisted  the  invitation  of  the 
monks  to  pass  the  night  there.  A  bright  full  moon  tempted 
us  to  drive  on  to  Agapia,  and  for  two  hours  vi^e  tore  along  at 
the  usual  pace,  regardless  of  no  roads,  and  the  uncertain 
light  which,  even  when  they  existed,  made  them  difficult  to 
find.  At  last,  like  a  fairy  scene,  the  convent  of  Agapia  burst 
upon  our  delighted  gaze.  Never,  during  a  long  and  varied 
course  of  travel,  have  I  felt  more  thoroughly  rewarded  for 
undertaking  a  journey  than  I  did  when  this  novel  and  unex- 
pected picture  was  presented  to  me.  The  glittering  spires 
and  cupolas  of  the  churches  seemed  to  rise  like  monuments 
of  burnished  silver  out  of  the  dark  pine-woods.     Hundreds 


A    VISIT   TO    THE   CONVENTS   OF   MOLDAVIA.  299 

of  little  cottages,  in  close  proximity  to  each  other,  clung  to  the 
hillside,  the  white  walls  gleaming  out  amid  the  foliage  ;  the 
convent  itself,  a  massive,  irregular  pile  of  building,  with  its 
great  archway  facing  us,  and  looming  large  in  the  moonlight, 
was  lighted  up  at  every  window ;  and  dark  female  figures 
fluttered  along  balconies,  as  the  bells  on  our  horses  gave 
warning  of  our  approach.  Our  visit  had  been  already  noti- 
fied by  the  metropolitan,  so  the  whole  place  was  on  the  gui 
vive ;  at  all  cottage  windows  white  faces,  half  shrouded  in  the 
nun's  hood,  peered  curiously  out  —  till  we  felt  guilty  of  the 
perturbation  and  excitement  which  our  unusual  visit  was 
likely  to  cause  among  the  fair  devotees,  who  were  supposed 
to  have  retired  from  the  world  expressly  to  avoid  such  dis- 
turbing influences.  Our  postilions,  who  belonged  to  Nyamptz, 
knew  the  right  door  at  which  to  draw  up  inside  the  court, 
and  here,  grouped  at  the  foot  of  the  staircase,  were  five  or  six 
elderly  nuns  waiting  to  receive  us.  Our  travelled  monk  pre- 
sented us,  and,  after  kissing  the  hand  of  each,  we  ascended 
by  an  outside  staircase  to  the  wooden  corridors  which  ran 
all  round  the  interior  of  the  court,  and  upon  which  opened 
the  rooms  set  apart  for  our  accommodation.  Both  in  the 
monasteries  and  convents  the  stranger  has  the  right  to  claim 
three  days'  hospitality ;  so  in  all  the  establishments  there 
are  regular  guests'  rooms,  and  not  unfrequently  the  natives 
of  the  country  take  advantage  of  the  privilege  to  spend 
months  in  making  a  tour  of  visits,  staying  in  each  until  even 
the  good-nature  of  the  monks  or  nuns  is  exhausted.  There 
was  therefore  nothing  unusual  in  the  fact  of  our  visit ;  the 
interest  lay  in  the  circumstance  of  our  being  foreigners  and 
Englishmen.  Few  of  the  nuns  had  ever  seen  specimens  of 
a  race  of  which  they  had  heard  a  great  deal ;  and  even  the 
middle-aged  ladies  who  were  now  waiting  upon  us  examined 
us  as  narrowly  as  good-breeding  would  permit.  It  was  use- 
less to  explain  that  our  object  in  visiting  these  secluded  val- 
leys was  sheer  curiosity.  They  were  firmly  persuaded  that 
we  were  commissioners  sent  by  England  to  make  inquiries 


300  EPISODES    IN    A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

into  the  confiscation   of  ecclesiastical  properly  by   Prince 
Couza,  which  was  at  that  time  agitating  the  whole  country, 
and  causing  great  dissension  among  the  protecting  powers. 
As  we  naturally  wished  to  understand  the  question  for  its 
own  sake,  our  incessant  queries,  and  the  interest  we  showed 
in  it,  only  confirmed  their  suspicions  and  increased  their  re- 
spect.    Indeed,  we  found  our  greatness  inconvenient  upon 
several  occasions,  though  it  was  not  without  its  advantages. 
In  the  first  place,  the  most  elaborate  arrangements  had  been 
made  for  our  reception.     The  table  in  the  large  dining-room 
groaned  under  an  extensive  assortment  of  the  good  things 
of  this  life.     Everything  was  scrupulously  clean,  and  the  din- 
ner, for  which  our  long  drive  had  prepared  us,  admirably  well 
cooked.     All  round  the  room  were  broad,  soft  divans,  and  in 
the  next  room,  in  which  we  were  to  sleep,  luxurious  beds  with 
fine  linen  had  been  made  up.     There  was  an  air  of  abun- 
dance and  comfort  truly  refreshing,  and  the  gentle  attend- 
ants who  waited  upon  us,  anticipating  every  wish  and  spar- 
ing themselves  no  pains  or  trouble  to  please  us,  imparted  to 
their  hospitality  a  charm  all  its  own.     While  we  were  doing 
ample  justice  to  the  viands  they  had  prepared  for  us,  they 
sat  in  a  row  on  the  opposite  divan,  applauding  our  appetites 
and  conversing  with  us  by  means  of  our  friend  the  travelled 
monk  and  one  of  the  gentlemen  who  had  accompanied  us 
from  Jassy.     We  discovered  that  they  were  the  committee 
of  direction  for  the  affairs  of  the  convent,  and  we  were  prom- 
ised an  interview  with  the  lady  superior  on  the  following 
day.     They  were  all  members  of  the  best  families  of  Molda- 
via, and  had  been  dedicated  to  the  conventual  life  from  their 
earliest  childhood,  whether  they  liked  it  or  not.     At  the  age 
of  five  they  had  been  put  to  school  in  the  convent,  and  when 
they  reached  eighteen  had  been  compelled  to  take  the  veil; 
so  that,  except  when  they  obtained  leave  for  a  month  or  two 
to  go  and  see  their  friends,  they  had  never  known  any  other 
existence  than  that  which  we  now  saw  them  leading — had 
never  had  any  other  excitement  than  that  caused  by  the  ad- 


A   VISIT   TO   THE   CONVENTS   OF    MOLDAVIA,  30I 

mission  of  a  new  sister,  the  arrival  of  relatives  or  travellers, 
a  dissension  among  themselves,  or  a  metropolitan  visitation. 
To  them  the  lovely  valley  at  the  head  of  which  the  convent 
was  situated  had  been  the  whole  world  from  their  earliest 
infancy.  If  they  were  not  so  strict  as  those  nuns  who  retire 
to  convents  because  they  are  disgusted  with  the  world,  it  was 
because  they  scarcely  knew  what  the  world  meant.  They 
were  all  still  artless  children,  happy,  pleased,  and  natural ; 
there  were  no  downcast  eyes  or  gloomy  penitential  expres- 
sion. They  were  as  delighted  to  see  us  as  children  would 
be  with  a  new  toy,  and  we  had  not  been  an  hour  in  their 
company  before  we  felt  thoroughly  at  home.  Unfortunately 
there  was  only  one  of  them  who  could  talk  a  little  French; 
and  another,  but  she  was  not  a  lady  director,  who  spoke 
German.  Presently  appeared  —  the  last  of  the  committee, 
whom  we  had  not  yet  seen — a  beautiful  woman,  in  the  prime 
of  womanhood,  with  the  softest  eyes,  the  sweetest  smile,  the 
gentlest  and  at  the  same  time  most  distinguished  manner: 
a  border  of  pale  yellow  round  her  hood,  which  was  coquet- 
tishly  arranged,  and  a  slight  expansion  in  the  skirt  of  her 
reddish  -  brown  serge  robe,  indicated  a  tendency  towards  a 
cap  and  crinoline,  and  accounted  for  the  slight  delay  in  her 
arrival.  After  we  had  satisfied  the  cravings  of  nature,  they 
took  us  out  to  the  upper  balconies  to  look  over  the  convent 
by  moonlight.  If  the  scene  had  seemed  unreal  when  we  first 
came  upon  it,  the  magic  panorama  upon  which  we  now  gazed 
was  still  more  enchanting.  All  round  us  dark  woods — at 
our  feet,  and  half  concealed  in  their  recesses,  three  hundred 
and  fifty  little  separate  cottages,  each  with  its  balcony,  its 
shingle  roof,  its  white  walls,  and  its  overhanging  foliage. 
Now  all  the  lights  were  extinguished,  and  the  most  profound 
stillness  reigned  —  not  even  the  barking  of  a  dog  was  to  be 
heard.  Except  ourselves,  there  was  not  a  man  within  two 
hours'  walk  of  where  four  hundred  women  were  sleeping 
among  the  trees  of  their  own  quiet  valley.  The  moon  was 
at  the  full,  and  poured  floods  of  light  into  every  nook  and 


303  EPISODES    IN    A   LIFE   OF   ADV^ENTURE, 

corner — into  the  courtyard,  with  its  quaint  old  carved  wood- 
en balconies — into  the  long,  narrow  windows  of  the  church, 
throwing  silver  rays  into  its  gloomy  recesses — doubtless  fall- 
ing softly  upon  the  face  of  many  a  sleeping  nun,  as  it  did 
upon  the  river  that  gleamed  and  shimmered  in  its  light  under 
the  black  shadow  of  the  steep  mountain-side. 

Though  the  day  had  been  a  long  and  tiring  one,  and  it 
was  now  late,  we  lingered  long  upon  these  balconies,  walking 
all  round  them,  and  finding,  as  each  corner  that  we  turned 
disclosed  a  new  picture,  fresh  inducement  to  remain.  The 
nuns,  amused  at  our  enthusiasm,  asked  us  if  we  could  con- 
tinue to  enjoy  the  view  until  it  was  time  for  the  midnight  ser- 
vice ;  and  on  our  professing  our  readiness  to  remain  up  in 
spite  of  our  heavy  eyelids,  they  most  considerately  promised 
to  have  prayers  half  an  hour  earlier  for  our  especial  benefit ; 
so  at  half-past  eleven  the  absolute  stillness  was  suddenly 
broken.  First  an  old  nun  with  a  lantern  flitted  like  a  black 
spectre  from  door  to  door,  and  chanted  the  reveille  at  each 
in  a  voice  loud  and  harsh  enough  to  wake  the  soundest 
sleeper.  She  looked  like  an  old  witch  hobbling  silently  and 
rapidly  on  her  rounds,  and  bursting  out  periodically  with  the 
same  nasal  refrain,  holding  her  lamp  the  while  high  above 
her  head.  As  we  were  watching  the  operations  of  this  old 
creature,  we  were  startled  by  a  sound  resembling  the  taps  of 
a  very  powerful  and  rather  musical  woodpecker.  First  shrill 
and  sharp,  rising  to  a  high  key,  then  with  a  dull  and  muffled 
sound,  tap,  tap,  tap,  came  from  the  quadrangle  below  us ; 
then  a  rattle  so  quick  that  I  imagined  it  must  be  somebody 
playing  on  a  wooden  drum.  The  cadence  was  wild,  but  not 
irregular ;  and  the  effect  of  the  roll  dying  away  until  it  was 
scarcely  audible,  and  then  breaking  out  at  its  full  strength, 
was  most  peculiar.  Watching  and  wondering,  the  mystery 
was  solved  by  the  appearance  of  a  stately  nun  stepping  out 
from  the  dark  shadows  of  the  church,  and  bearing  upon  her 
shoulders  what  seemed  in  the  uncertain  light  a  long  white 
plank.     This  she  poised  in  a  peculiar  way,  and  with  a  short 


A   VISIT   TO    THE   CONVENTS   OF    MOLDAVIA.  303 

Stick  tapped  a  tune  upon  it.  On  the  following  morning  I 
examined  the  apparatus,  and  found  the  board  about  twelve 
feet  long,  extremely  thin  and  light,  and  pierced  from  the  cen- 
tre towards  the  extremities  with  a  series  of  holes  gradually 
increasing  in  size,  so  that  it  was  really  a  musical  plank,  and, 
in  the  hands  of  an  experienced  player,  could  be  made  to 
convey  the  idea  of  a  tune  ;  but  the  chief  feature  of  the  per- 
formance was  the  tremendous  noise  it  made.  What  between 
the  old  woman  screaming  her  waking  chant,  and  two  nuns 
walking  about  the  court  tapping  musical  planks,  there  was  no 
fear  of  any  sleeping  sister  remaining  unaware  that  her  prayer- 
time  had  arrived  ;  and,  sure  enough,  a  very  few  minutes 
elapsed  before,  from  all  corners,  they  came  tripping,  or  rather 
gliding,  like  dark  ghosts,  to  the  church -door.  They  must 
sleep  in  their  dress,  or  else  have  acquired  the  art  of  making 
a  toilet  as  rapid  as  that  of  an  undergraduate  late  for  chapel, 
so  speedily  did  they  obey  the  summons.  It  was  now  time 
for  us  to  follow.  The  old  woman  and  the  plank  were  still, 
and  the  swelling  tones  of  a  sacred  chant  warned  us  that  the 
service  had  commenced.  Modestly,  and  with  downcast  eyes, 
did  we  pass  between  two  motionless  rows  of  fair  worshippers, 
until  we  reached  the  place  of  honor  among  the  elder  sisters. 
Here  in  a  little  carpeted  niche  we  stood  meekly — the  only 
men — and  listened  to  the  women's  voices  repeating  in  high, 
monotonous  key  the  perpetual  refrain.  By  degrees  we  ac- 
quired courage,  and  were  rewarded  for  our  boldness  in  look- 
ing up  by  detecting  stolen  glances  shot  at  us  from  every 
quarter.  The  principal  performer  of  the  service  was  a  lovely 
girl,  apparently  of  eighteen  or  nineteen,  who  was  standing  in 
a  group  of  young  sisters  when  we  came  in,  and  whose  turn  it 
seemed  to  be  to  officiate,  for  she  slipped  out  of  her  corner 
and  donned  over  her  hood  a  sort  of  surplice,  then,  advancing 
to  the  desk  in  the  middle  of  the  church,  she  opened  the 
massive,  ornamented  volume  before  her,  and  went  off  at 
score.  I  could  not  have  imagined  that  those  ruby  lips  could 
have  moved  with  such  extraordinary  rapidity,  that  the  ex- 


304  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF    ADVENTURE. 

quisitely  chiselled  nose  should  prove  an  organ  for  conveying 
the  shrillest  and  most  unpleasant  sounds  at  a  pace  which 
was  quite  electrifying.  Whenever  the  moment  for  a  response 
came,  the  chorus  "cut  in"  with  something  "Gospodin,"  as 
if  the  whole  thing  were  being  done  for  a  wager.  She  never 
paused  nor  flagged  in  her  harsh,  nasal  rattle  of  Moldavian 
prayer,  worked  up  now  and  then  to  a  shrill  invocation,  and 
varied  with  prostrations,  the  extinction  and  lighting  of  can- 
dles, and  full  choruses.  An  hour  seemed  to  pass,  neverthe- 
less, like  a  few  moments.  There  was  something  fascinating 
in  watching  these  fair  devotees  managing  all  their  own  mat- 
ters without  male  interference  ;  and  I  could  conceive  from 
the  scene  before  me  what  that  might  be  so  well  imagined  by 
Tennyson.     Those 

"  Prudes  for  proctors,  dowagers  for  deans, 
And  sweet  girl-graduates  in  their  golden  hair," 

only  needed  to  be  transported  to  a  wild  Carpathian  valley  to 
realize  the  poetic  fancy. 

I  should  remark,  however,  that  there  is  one  priest  in  Aga- 
pia  who  officiates  at  mass,  and  who  is  a  married  man.  Not- 
withstanding the  rumor  which  had  got  abroad  that  we  were 
to  be  present,  there  was  a  smaller  congregation  than  I  ex- 
pected ;  but  I  was  assured  that  some  of  the  nuns  were  per- 
forming service  in  another  church,  and  the  rest  saying  their 
prayers  at  home.  This  last  I  take  to  be  the  most  common 
practice  ;  for,  on  subsequent  occasions,  on  dropping  inciden- 
tally in  for  service,  I  have  found  no  audience  at  all ;  the  of- 
ficiating nuns  make  up  a  litde  congregation  in  themselves, 
as  there  must  be  a  certain  number  for  the  church  and  a  cer- 
tain number  to  read  in  turn.  It  was  one  o'clock  in  the 
morning  before  I  sought  my  divan  bed,  after  one  of  the  most 
novel  and  interesting  day's  experiences  I  ever  remember  to 
have  passed.  Nothing  but  downright  fatigue  would  have 
enabled  me  to  sleep  with  so  many  quaint  sights  and  sounds 
dancing  before  my  eyes  and  ringing  in  my  ears  ;  but  our  time 
was  short,  and  there  was  much  to  be  seen,  so  we  slept  as  fast 


A   VISIT   TO   THE  CONVENTS   OF    MOLDAVIA.  305 

as  possible,  and  were  up  in  time  for  matins  at  six  o'clock. 
Here  we  saw  a  number  of  new  nuns,  with  some  of  whom  we 
made  acquaintance  ;  but  the  absence  of  any  common  lan- 
guage was  a  terrible  drawback  to  our  intercourse.  Never 
having  received  an  education  to  fit  them  for  society,  they 
knew  no  language  but  Moldavian  ;  and  though  we  applied 
ourselves  to  the  acquirement  of  that  tongue  under  their  tui- 
tion with  the  utmost  diligence,  our  time  was  too  short  to 
make  progress. 

After  matins  we  paid  a  visit  to  the  lady  superior,  a  dear 
old  lady,  who  gave  us  sweetmeats  and  cigarettes,  and  kissed 
our  foreheads  when  we  were  presented  and  when  we  took 
leave.  She  was  very  anxious  that  we  should  prolong  our 
stay  for  as  many  weeks  as  we  liked,  and  was  quite  hurt  when 
we  told  her  how  hurried  our  visit  must  necessarily  be.  Anx- 
ious to  carry  away  a  memento  of  the  place,  we  prevailed 
upon  her  to  give  us  an  old-fashioned  daguerreotype  of  the 
convent,  which  was  fading  rapidly,  and  which  we  promised 
to  have  photographed  in  England  and  sent  back.  Most  un- 
fortunately, some  weeks  afterwards,  the  portmanteau  contain- 
ing it  was  cut  off  the  back  of  our  carriage  by  thieves  in  the 
night,  and  we  proved,  to  our  regret,  unavoidably  faithless. 

We  now  went  on  a  round  of  visits,  and  were  delighted  with 
the  charming  little  cottages,  each  in  its  own  garden,  and  con- 
taining one  or  two  fair  occupants,  sometimes  a  young  girl 
quite  by  herself  The  rich  ones  are  waited  upon  by  the 
needy  sisters,  but  at  Veratica,  which  we  afterwards  visited, 
there  was  a  much  greater  profusion  of  wealth  than  here. 
Some  of  our  friends  proposed  a  picnic  for  the  afternoon,  and 
we  started  off,  a  merry  party  of  eight  or  ten,  on  foot  for  a  ro- 
mantic rock  in  the  woods,  from  the  summit  of  which  a  mag- 
nificent view  was  obtained  of  the  valley  and  convent.  After 
a  regular  scramble,  we  were  rewarded  for  our  exertions  by 
finding  that  our  kind  hosts  had  sent  on  a  hamper  with  sun- 
dry delicacies — that  hot  coffee  was  prepared,  and  a  brisk  fire 
ready  for  the  emergencies  of  our  repast. 


306  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

So  we  chatted  and  refreshed,  and  were  smoking  tran- 
quilly, when,  to  my  astonishment,  I  observed  some  of  the 
ladies  engaged  in  dragging  dead  branches  to  the  base  of  a 
lofty  pine-tree,  and  piling  them  round  it.  On  inquiring  the 
reason  of  this  proceeding,  they  informed  us  that  it  was  great 
fun  burning  a  pine-tree,  and  assured  us,  if  we  had  never  seen 
it,  that  we  should  enjoy  the  spectacle.  We  suggested  the 
possibility  of  the  whole  forest  catching  fire  ;  but  they  said  they 
had  chosen  an  isolated  tree,  and  that  even  if  it  did  run  along 
the  hillside,  what  would  that  matter — pine-trees  were  cheap 
in  the  Carpathians.  So  we  heaped  up  branches  round  the 
old  forest  giant,  and  doomed  him  to  a  splendid  but  lingering 
death.  Then  we  threw  blazing  logs  into  the  dry  mass,  and 
the  flame  leaped  crackling  up  to  the  highest  branches.  Our 
fair  companions  clapped  their  hands  with  delight  as  the  fire 
roared  and  darted  out  angry  forks  of  flame  with  each  fresh 
gust  of  wind,  and  a  spiral  column  of  dense  smoke  burst  in 
jets  from  the  top,  and,  spreading  like  a  pall  over  the  grave 
of  the  dying  patriarch,  gave  notice  far  and  wide  of  the  sacri- 
lege which  was  being  perpetrated. 

The  term  employed  in  addressing  our  companions  was 
always  Mika  (mother)  ;  and  there  was  something  quaint, 
considering  the  age  of  some  of  them,  in  bestowing  the  ap- 
pellation. Nevertheless,  it  was  pleasant  to  be  called  "  Son," 
even  by  a  girl  of  nineteen,  and  gave  one  the  impression  of 
having  inspired  an  affectionate  interest.  From  our  present 
elevated  position  the  convent  appeared  to  great  advantage. 
Instead  of  the  gaunt,  solitary  building  usual  on  such  occa- 
sions, the  large  collection  of  little  cottages,  prettily  distributed 
and  divided  by  the  neatest  of  fences,  clustered  round  the 
convent  like  chickens  round  a  hen.  Instead  of  a  barred 
doorway  with  a  "  grille,"  and  a  stern  "  janitress,"  the  fair  occu- 
pants were  free  to  roam  about  the  valley  where  they  pleased 
and  with  whom  they  pleased.  Instead  of'lugubrious  counte- 
nances and  an  air  of  general  mortification  in  dress  and  man- 
ner, there  were  laughing  merry  faces,  and  numerous  innova- 


A   VISIT   TO   THE   CONVENTS    OF   MOLDAVIA.  307 

tions  upon  strict  conventual  costume,  of  which  the  most 
serious  was  crinoline.  Only  a  few  weeks  before  our  visit 
the  metropolitan  had  made  a  tour  of  inspection,  and  con- 
fiscated every  "  cage  "  he  could  lay  his  hands  on.  Still 
there  was  abundant  evidence  that  some  had  escaped  the 
sweeping  measure.  Where  were  there  ever  such  "  cells  "  as 
the  lovely  little  boudoirs  to  be  found  in  some  of  these  cot- 
tages ?  Alas  !  the  palmy  days  of  the  convents  have  gone 
by.  Before  long  there  will  be  a  railway-station  within  two 
hours'  drive  of  Agapia ;  and  a  recent  order  has  been  passed 
prohibiting  any  religiously  minded  young  person  from  being 
compelled  by  her  parents  to  take  the  veil  until  she  is  forty- 
five.  This  is  practically  putting  an  end  to  the  system  of 
convents  altogether — as  old  maids  don't  exist  in  the  princi- 
palities—  happy  land!  —  and  widows  are  extremely  rare. 
The  only  chance  of  catching  a  nun  is  to  get  her  quite  young, 
when  she  is  a  trouble  to  her  family  ;  now  they  can  no  longer 
be  turned  into  religleuses  as  of  old  ;  and  as  infanticide  is  not 
in  vogue  in  these  parts,  as  in  China,  their  prospects  are  ex- 
tremely questionable.  Under  the  old  system,  what  between 
having  plenty  of  visitors  from  Jassy  during  the  summer,  and 
getting  leave  to  spend  a  little  of  the  season  in  the  gay  cap- 
ital themselves  in  winter,  they  make  life  pass  pleasantly 
enough.  I  have  more  than  once  met  in  society  at  Jassy 
"recluses"  from  these  establishments,  only  to  be  distin- 
guished by  their  hoods,  as  they  wear  silk  and  crinoline  when 
they  are  on  leave,  and  doff  the  hood  if  they  go  to  the  theatre 
or  any  evening  entertainments.  In  fact,  they  hold  much  the 
same  position  in  society  that  the  Chanoinesses  used  to  do  in 
France — except  that  in  their  case,  unlike  these  latter,  matri- 
mony is  of  course  impossible.  Perhaps  that  is  no  great 
drawback,  seeing  that  they  enjoy  all  the  freedom  of  married 
women,  without  any  of  the  cares  and  responsibilities. 

As  the  most  touching  memento  we  could  take  from  Aga- 
pia, we  obtained  from  the  nuns  enough  of  the  serge  they 
weave  and  wear  themselves  to  make  us  a  shooting  -  suit 


308  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

apiece,  and  then  with  heavy  hearts  swallowed  our  last  meal 
under  the  same  anxious  superintendence  as  ever,  and 
awaited  the  summons  to  our  vehicles.  Although  our  visit 
had  not  been  long,  we  had  made  many  friends,  who  all  as- 
sembled to  bid  us  adieu.  The  form  of  parting  salutation  is 
touching,  and  when  extended  along  a  row  of  nuns,  produces 
a  singular  effect.  We  reverently  kissed  their  hands,  and 
they  bent  over  and  kissed  our  heads.  It  is  easy  to  conceive 
how  strong  was  the  temptation  to  linger  before  this  one,  to 
hurry  past  another — how  difficult  to  collect  one's  ideas  in 
the  confusion  of  such  a  moment,  for  a  strict  sense  of  pro- 
priety prevented  any  outward  manifestation  of  partiality. 
Persons  who  have  never  known  before  what  it  is  to  have  a 
great  many  pairs  of  lips,  some  fresh  and  ruddy,  others  old 
and  wrinkled,  pressed  in  rapid  succession  upon  their  fore- 
heads, will  be  conscious  of  a  sensation  of  numbness  in  the 
scalp  at  last,  arising  probably  from  a  conflict  of  emotions  ; 
nor,  if  the  head  be  bald,  as  mine  was,  will  it  be  possible  to 
prevent  its  becoming  red.  But  why  dwell  upon  such  har- 
rowing details  ?  We  found  the  good-will  of  our  fair  enter- 
tainers extended  itself  to  our  equipages.  Each  carriage  was 
furnished  with  nine  horses  belonging  to  the  convent,  and 
three  gypsy  postilions  of  wild  and  uncouth  aspect  and  some- 
what rugged  attire.  Then  with  loud  cries  and  sharp  whip- 
crackings  we  dashed  out  of  the  convent-yard,  and  all  the 
bells  burst  forth  with  a  merry  peal,  and  we  frantically  waved 
our  hats  as  we  passed  by  well-known  balconies  and  under  the 
windows  of  the  charming  cottage  where  the  dear  old  lady 
superior  stood  kissing  her  hand  to  us  in  final  adieu.  Our 
gypsy  riders  and  their  rugged  team  did  not  allow  us  much 
time  to  collect  our  scattered  faculties.  They  evidently  were 
impressed  with  a  great  idea  of  our  importance,  and  thought 
that  exactly  in  proportion  as  we  were  great  ought  our  move- 
ments to  be  rapid  ;  so  we  flew  down  the  beds  of  mountain 
torrents,  between  lofty  wooded  hills,  and  finally  emerged  from 
the  mountains  on  to  the  undulating  rich  country,  which 
stretched  away  to  the  plains  we  had  originally  traversed. 


A   VISIT   TO   THE   CONVENTS   OF    MOLDAVIA.  309 

We   were   bound  to   Veratica,   another    convent    not  so 
prettily  situated,  but  even  more  celebrated  than  the  last. 
On  the  way  we  passed  several  villages  and  a  good  deal  of 
land,  producing  Indian  corn,  melons,  and  grain,  and  towards 
evening  reached  our  destination — a  larger  collection  of  cot- 
tages than  at  Agapia,  only  placed  not  in  a  cul  dc  sac,  but  on 
the  slope  of  a  hill  commanding  an  extensive  prospect  over 
the  lowlands  of  Moldavia,  and  altogether  comparatively  in 
the  world.     A  village  almost  at  the  gates  of  the  convent  dis- 
pelled the  delusion  of  complete  isolation,  and  of  seclusion  so 
striking  as  at  Agapia ;  and  when  the  atmosphere  was  clear, 
even  the  town  of  Nyamptz  was  visible  in  the  far  distance,  to 
remind  us  of  the  busy  haunts  of  men.     Here  there  was  no 
conventual  building  at  all  as  at  Agapia,  where  a  certain 
small  proportion  of  nuns  lived  in  the  convent,  properly  so 
called.     All  the  nuns  of  Veratica  lived  in  their  own  cottages, 
of  which  there  were  upwards  of  four  hundred.     It  is  true 
that  some  of  them  were  ranged  in  the  form  of  a  square,  in 
the  centre  of  which  was  a  church,  and  which  was  entered 
under  an  archway;  but  the  general  aspect  of  the  place  re- 
minded me  of  some  of  the  mission  establishments  I  had 
seen  in  India.     There  were  no  less  than  four  churches  in 
Veratica  for  the  benefit  of  six  hundred  resident  nuns,  who 
never  seemed  to  me  to  attend  them  ;  and  there  was  a  school 
for  girls,  presided  over  by  the  prettiest  woman  in  the  con- 
vent.    There  was  every  indication  of  greater  wealth  and 
luxe  here  than  at  the  establishment  we  had  just  left;  and 
we  were  put  up,  not  in  any  suite  of  apartments  destined  to 
strangers,  but  by  one  of  the  principal  nuns,  to  whom  we  had 
a  letter  of  introduction,  and  who  in  the  kindest  way  gave  up 
half  her  house  to  us.     Nor  would  it  have  been  possible  to 
conceive  anything  more  perfect  and  artistic  than  the  taste 
with  which  her  little  abode  was  arranged.      Half  a  dozen 
really  good  pictures,  picked  up  in  Italy  by  some  one  who 
knew  what  he  was  about,  and  others  from  Paris,  a  piano,  a 
handsome  Turkey  carpet,  heavy  curtains  of  silk  brocade, 


3IO  EPISODES   IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

spring  couches  and  arm-chairs  richly  covered,  some  valuable 
little  bits  of  old  China,  a  goodly  sprinkling  of  small  Parisian 
looking-glasses  in  ornamented  frames,  composed  the  furni- 
ture of  the  two  "  cells "  to  which  my  friend  and  I  were 
doomed.  These  opened  out  upon  a  balcony  in  front,  over- 
looking a  flower-garden  and  the  convent  square ;  and  here 
we  used  to  sit  and  smoke  cigarettes,  for  the  fragrant  weed 
is  much  in  vogue  among  the  recluses,  and  their  tobacco  was 
always  unexceptionable.  Our  first  duty  was  to  call  upon 
the  lady  superior,  who  received  us  as  kindly  as  her  sister  at 
Agapia.  She  told  us  that  she  had  entered  the  convent  at 
the  age  of  thirteen — she  was  now  seventy ;  and,  except  an 
occasional  trip  to  Jassy,  had  passed  the  whole  of  her  exist- 
ence in  religious  exercises.  She,  as  well  as  several  of  the 
committee  of  direction,  were  keen  politicians,  and  discussed 
with  eagerness  and  a  great  deal  of  knowledge  of  affairs  the 
intrigues  of  Prince  Couza  and  the  abuses  of  his  government. 
Nor  were  they  at  all  sparing  in  the  epithets  they  applied  to 
the  chief  of  the  state.  As  many  of  the  ladies  at  Veratica 
were  nearly  connected  with  families  who  have  wielded  abso- 
lute power  in  one  or  other  principality,  they  were  entitled  to 
speak  with  a  certain  amount  of  bitterness ;  and  as  they 
maintained  a  hot  correspondence  with  their  relations,  some 
of  whom  are  the  wealthiest  and  most  powerful  /joyards,  iheir 
information  was  generally  pretty  accurate.  The  brother  of 
my  hostess  held  a  very  high  official  position ;  she  herself 
was  very  wealthy ;  and  besides  her  delightful  little  house, 
she  had  a  carriage-and-pair,  a  lady's-maid  who  was  not  a 
nun,  and  dressed  in  the  last  Parisian  fashion ;  a  very  excel- 
lent cook,  as  I  have  good  reason  to  remember,  and  most  at- 
tentive servants.  Altogether  it  was  quite  clear  that  between 
Veratica  and  Agapia  there  was  as  great  a  difference  as  be- 
tween Trinity  College  and  Emmanuel,  or  Christchurch  and 
Wadham.  There  was  no  doubt  which  was  the  more  aristo- 
cratic, the  more  wealthy,  and  the  more  mundane  of  the  two. 
Still  I  looked  back  with  regret  to  the  unsophisticated  atmos- 


A   VISIT   TO   THE   CONVENTS    OF    MOLDAVIA.  3II 

phere  of  "  the  happy  valley  "  of  Agapia.  How  easy  it  is  to 
be  hypercritical  on  these  occasions !  How  romantic  and 
overwhelming  in  its  novelty  should  we  have  found  Veratica 
had  we  paid  it  our  first  visit !  now  there  was  something  flat 
and  vapid  about  it.  There  was  not  quite  enough  of  the 
odor  of  sanctity  in  the  air  to  suit  our  refined  tastes.  We 
felt  as  if  we  had  almost  got  back  to  the  world,  and  were 
sorely  tempted  to  plunge  into  the  wild  valleys  of  the  Bis- 
tritz,  where  convents  nestle  in  unexplored  recesses,  ap- 
proached by  rock-cut  steps  overhung  by  glaciers,  and  where 
the  occupants  would  really  appreciate  the  visits  of  a  stranger; 
where  one  may  shoot  chamois  or  catch  trout,  hunt  bears  or 
go  picnics,  sketch  lovely  scenery  or  learn  Moldavian  under 
pleasant  auspices,  scramble  over  mountain-passes,  and  gen- 
erally find  on  the  other  side  an  ecclesiastical  bed  not  yet 
confiscated  by  Prince  Couza  ;  where  the  monks  are  all  really 
"good  fellows,"  and  only  too  glad  to  put  you  up,  and  for- 
ward your  views,  whatever  they  may  be,  to  the  best  of  their 
ability  ;  where  letters  can't  reach  you,  and  the  cares  of  this 
life  cannot  penetrate  ;  where  comfort  is  combined  with  econ- 
omy, and  the  only  way  of  gliding  back  to  the  world  is  down 
the  river  on  a  raft. 

Valley  of  Bistritz  !  if  an  inexorable  fate  —  and  the  ap- 
proach of  winter — compelled  me  once  to  turn  my  back  upon 
you,  may  the  day  yet  come  when  I  may  take  another  siesta 
under  the  conventual  shadow,  and  awake  from  a  dream  as 
pleasant  as  this  last. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

THE  WAR  IN  SCIILESWIG-HOLSTEIN  :  THE  BATTLE  OF  MISSUNDE. 

From  Jassy  we  posted  on  to  Bucharest,  and  after  spending 
a  few  days  at  the  City  of  Pleasure,  and  making  acquaintance 
with  Prince  Couza,  an  adventurer  whose  corrupt  rule  was 
not  long  after  brought  to  an  end  by  a  coup  d'etat,  we  crossed 
the  Carpathians  into  Transylvania  at  Cronstadt,  then  drove 
on  to  Hermanstadt,  and  went  on   a  sporting  trip  into  the 
mountains.     On  our  return,  we  presented  the  carriage  which 
had  served  us  so  faithfully  all  the  way  from  Lemburg  to  the 
landlord  of  our  hotel,  and  took  train  to  Pesth.     Here  Mr. 
Ashley  left  me  to  return  home,  and  I  visited  some  old  Hun- 
garian friends,  and  so  worked  my  way  into  Silesia.     It  was 
while  staying  at  Primkenau,  the  country-seat  of  the  late  Duke 
of  Augustenburg,  that  the  news  arrived  of  the  death  of  the 
King  of  Denmark.     This  event  let  loose  upon  Europe  the 
Schleswig-Holstein  question,  with  all  its  complications,  and 
called  Prince  Frederick,  the  eldest  son  of  my  host,  from  his 
retirement  into  a  position  of  prominence  ;  for,  in  the  opinion 
of  the  best  German  jurists,  he  now,  in  consequence  of  his 
father's  abdication  of  his  rights,  became  the  lawful  heir  to 
the  duchies.     The  question  was  one  which,  under  the  cir- 
cumstances, I  was  naturally  induced  to  study,  and  in  regard 
to  which  I  could  only  come  to  one  conclusion.     As  confess- 
edly it  was  one  which  the  British  statesmen  of  the  day  con- 
sidered beyond  their  comprehension,  and  as  the  British  pub- 
lic never  even  tried  to  understand  it,  it  was  no  wonder  that 
our  policy  was  mistaken  throughout.     When  a  question  has 
more  than  two  sides,  the  popular  intelligence  fails  to  grasp 
it.     As  most  questions  of  foreign  policy  have  generally  three 


THE   WAR   IN   SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN.  313 

at  least,  and  sometimes  more,  and  as  ministers  are  compelled 
to  adopt  the  popular  view,  if  they  wish  to  retain  office,  the 
foreign  policy  of  England  is  usually  characterized  by  a 
charming  simplicity,  not  always  conducive  to  the  highest  in- 
terests of  the  country.  Fortunately  on  this  occasion  minis- 
ters were  saved,  by  the  exercise  of  an  authority  higher  than 
their  own,  from  plunging  the  country  into  a  futile  and  dis- 
astrous war.  It  is  not  necessary  here,  however,  to  recur  to 
the  political  aspects  of  the  question,  which  were  ably  and 
conclusively  dealt  with  at  the  time  in  a  pamphlet  by  Mr. 
Morier  (now  Sir  Robert  Morier,  our  ambassador  at  St.  Pe- 
tersburg), and  by  Mr.  Kinglake  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
while  I  contributed  my  quota  in  the  public  press. 

It  was  at  Gotha,  under  the  auspices  of  the  present  Duke 
of  Saxe-Coburg-Gotha,  who  was  the  first  to  recognize  Duke 
Frederick  as  having  succeeded  to  the  duchies,  that  a  decis- 
ion was  arrived  at  in  regard  to  the  policy  to  be  pursued; 
and  here  were  gathered  many  eminent  patriots,  who  met  in 
conclave — an  assemblage  which  I  was  very  glad  to  have  an 
opportunity  of  joining. 

It  was  as  the  result  of  these  deliberations  that  upon  the 
last  day  but  one  of  the  year  1863  three  strangers  might  have 
been  observed  by  the  inhabitants  of  Harburg  embarking  on 
board  a  little  river  steamer  lying  at  the  wharf  with  her  steam 
up.  But  the  inhabitants  of  Harburg  observed  nothing,  for 
they  are  a  phlegmatic  commercial  race,  who  do  not  trouble 
themselves  with  the  concerns  of  other  people  ;  and  although 
there  was  something  unusual  in  these  gentlemen  taking  a 
trip  down  the  Elbe  in  a  steamer  chartered  expressly  for 
themselves  in  mid-winter,  no  curious  questions  were  asked 
as  to  who  they  were,  or  where  they  were  going.  They  were 
a  very  quiet,  unpretending  trio,  with  no  display  of  luggage 
or  attendants ;  and  the  captain  of  the  steamer  understood 
them  to  be  public  functionaries,  employed  in  making  an 
official  tour  of  investigation  upon  the  river.  So  he  steamed 
unsuspiciously  down  to  Gluckstadt  through  a  stream  already 
14 


314  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

cumbered  with  blocks  of  ice  ;  and  his  passengers  went  ashore 
in  a  little  boat,  and  were  met  on  the  pier  by  one  or  two  gen- 
tlemen who  apparently  had  received  notice  of  their  intended 
arrival,  and  were  there  to  meet  them.  Up  to  this  moment 
the  little  town  of  Gluckstadt  had  been  as  quiet  and  indiffer- 
ent to  the  approach  of  the  steamer  as  Harburg  had  been  to 
its  departure.  It  is  true  that  the  inhabitants  had  scarcely 
recovered  the  breath  expended  in  cheering  the  entry  of  Ger- 
man troops  upon  the  departure  of  the  Danes,  and  shouting 
the  Schkswig-Holstein  anthem;  but  they  knew  no  reason 
why  they  should  regard  the  gentlemen  walking  along  the 
pier  with  any  unusual  interest.  Suddenly  a  sort  of  electric 
shock  seemed  to  thrill  through  the  town  ;  people  began 
frantically  to  run  towards  the  market-place  ;  the  three  gen- 
tlemen found  themselves  surrounded  by  an  enthusiastic  and 
excited  multitude,  who  could  scarcely  realize  the  fact  that  he 
whom  they  maintained  to  be  their  lawful  sovereign  had  come 
to  claim  his  own,  and  had  been  compelled,  in  order  to  avoid 
the  traps  laid  for  him  by  his  enemies,  thus  to  steal  into  the 
country  No  one  could  visit  Holstein  at  such  a  moment 
without  catching  the  infection.  Who  can  stand  by  and  watch 
unmoved  the  progress  of  a  game  when  the  stake  played  for 
is  a  crown  ?  Who  can  live  in  an  atmosphere  of  shouting  and 
cheering  and  wild  excitement,  and  remain  indifferent  to  the 
popular  emotion  ?  How  is  it  possible  to  see  a  whole  nation 
testifying  its  unanimous  desire  for  some  one  thing  upon 
which  they  have  set  their  affections,  and  not  join  in  "wish- 
ing they  may  get  it  ?"  It  may  be  bad  for  them,  or  they  may 
have  no  right  to  it ;  but  when  nearly  a  million  of  wills  are 
all  turned  in  the  same  direction,  there  is  generally  a  good 
deal  to  be  said  in  their  favor.  Whole  nations  are  not  unan- 
imous without  some  cause.  And  although  we  may  not  al- 
ways trust  the  wisdom  of  popular  movements,  and  generally 
disapprove  of  the  means  they  employ  to  achieve  their  ends, 
they  deserve  to  be  respected  when  they  represent  the  aspi- 
rations of  every  class  of  society. 


THE   WAR    IN   SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN,  315 

When  I  arrived  at  Kiel,  the  day  after  the  Duke  of  Augus- 
tenburg  had  made  his  triumphant  entry  into  the  town,  the 
Holsteiners  were  still  giving  vent  to  the  redundancy  of  their 
enthusiasm.  They  had  been  passing  from  one  phase  of 
patriotic  excitement  to  another.  First  of  all,  the  sullen  de- 
parture of  the  Danish  garrisons  put  them  in  good  spirits,  and 
they  chuckled  inwardly  as  they  watched  the  retiring  regiments. 
Then,  almost  before  the  last  Danish  soldier  had  disappeared, 
from  every  window  fluttered  the  national  banner.  The  whole 
town  instantaneously  broke  out  into  rejoicing.  The  shops 
were  shut,  and  the  population  gave  themselves  up  with  one 
consent  to  singing,  upon  all  possible  occasions  and  without 
intermission,  "  Schleswig-Holstein  meer  umschlungen."  The 
Saxon  and  Hanoverian  troops  were  welcomed  as  deliverers, 
and  overwhelmed  with  civilities.  Every  Danish  emblem 
disappeared ;  the  word  Kongliche  was  taken  down  from  all 
the  public  buildings,  and,  with  a  levity  characteristic  of  all 
popular  emotion,  the  people  of  Kiel  thought  that  their  cause 
was  won,  that  their  anxieties  were  at  an  end,  and  that  noth- 
ing more  remained  but  for  Duke  Frederick  to  come  and  take 
possession  of  his  own  ;  so  that  when  that  prince  did  unex- 
pectedly make  his  appearance,  the  town  went  off  into  a  new 
series  of  demonstrations  ;  and  as  I  entered  it  at  eight  o'clock 
in  the  evening,  I  found  the  streets  illuminated  by  a  torch- 
light procession.  Five  hundred  waving  torches  cast  a  lurid 
glare  upon  the  snow-clad  houses  and  whitened  streets ;  and 
when  they  all  collected  in  front  of  the  Bahnhoffs  Hotel,  at 
which  the  duke  had  taken  up  his  abode,  and  broke  out  into 
enthusiastic  cheers,  and  bands  played,  and  banners  fluttered, 
and  a  venerable  citizen,  with  a  voice  trembling  from  emotion, 
in  a  few  touching  words  welcomed  back  to  his  own  capital 
the  prince  who  had  been  in  exile  from  it  for  fourteen  years, 
it  was  difficult  to  deny  the  genuineness  of  the  popular  senti- 
ment, or  to  remain  an  indifferent  spectator  to  this  develop- 
ment of  it.  '  The  duke,  standing  at  a  window,  addressed  the 
crowd,  which,  with  eager,  upturned  faces,  were  gazing  upon 


3l6  EPISODES    IN    A   LIFE   OF  ADVENTURE. 

and  listening  to  him  for  the  first  time.  To  judge  by  the 
cheers  at  the  conckision  of  his  speech,  they  were  satisfied 
with  their  inspection,  and  dispersed,  not  to  go  to  bed,  but  to 
parade  the  streets  and  lanes.  It  was  the  last  night  of  the 
year,  and  there  seemed  something  hopeful  in  the  auspices 
under  which  1864  was  being  ushered  in.  I  adjourned,  with 
a  number  of  excited  citizens,  to  a  club,  or  harmonia,  as  it 
was  called  ;  and  here,  under  the  influence  of  beer,  and  in  an 
atmosphere  of  smoke,  patriotic  speeches  were  made,  toasts 
proposed,  and  the  old  year  satisfactorily  disposed  of.  Little 
did  the  worthy  citizens  of  Kiel  then  imagine  that  before 
many  weeks  were  over  all  would  be  changed ;  that  they 
would  be  taking  down  instead  of  putting  up  flags,  ceasing  to 
apostrophize  "  Schleswig-Holstein  sea-embraced,"  and  meet- 
ing in  the  harmonia,  not  to  congratulate,  but  to  condole  with 
each  other — to  drink  no  longer  to  the  health  of  Saxon  and 
of  Hanoverian,  but  confusion  to  the  Austrian  and  the  Prussian. 
However,  they  did  right  not  to  anticipate  misfortunes.  They 
took  advantage  of  the  bright  sun  to  make  what  little  hay 
they  could,  and  every  demonstration  that  could  be  imagined 
was  made.  Twenty-four  fair  maids  of  Kiel,  dressed  in  white, 
with  tricolor  ribbons,  came  and  tendered  their  homage  to  the 
duke  on  behalf  of  the  sex  generally.  A  grand  patriotic  rep- 
resentation was  given  at  the  theatre,  with  a  tableau  emblem- 
atical of  the  inseparable  union  of  Schleswig  with  Holstein  ; 
while  deputations  succeeded  each  other  in  unvaried  succes- 
sion, not  merely  from  all  parts  of  Holstein,  but  from  Schles- 
wig as  well.  One  of  the  most  interesting  of  these  consisted 
of  a  procession  of  four  hundred  yeomen  and  small  country 
proprietors,  who  rode  into  the  town,  and  formed  with  mili- 
tary precision  before  the  hotel.  It  was  impossible  to  look 
upon  these  sturdy  agriculturists,  and  not  see  in  them  the 
type  of  the  British  farmer.  Schleswig-Holstein  is  indeed  the 
cradle  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  ;  their  oldest  national  songs 
were  preserved,  not  in  their  own  country,  but  in  ours ;  and 
our  chronicler,  the  Venerable  Bede,  furnishes  the  most  au- 


THE   WAR    IN    SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN.  317 

(hentic  traditions  of  their  early  history.  The  language  of  the 
Frisen  and  the  Angeln  is  full  of  words  which  are  to  be  found, 
not  in  German,  but  in  English  ;  and  both  the  rural  and  mar- 
itime populations  of  these  provinces  bear  the  strongest  re- 
semblance to  our  own. 

It  was  exactly  a  month  before  the  Austrian  and  Prussian 
armies  crossed  the  Eider  that  I  found  myself  performing 
that  historical  operation  at  Rendsburg.  Contrary  to  my  ex- 
pectation, I  crossed  it  without  opposition.  It  is  true  that,  in- 
asmuch as  the  Eider  was  frozen  over  from  one  end  to  the 
other,  a  solitary  invader  might  enter  Schleswigin  spite  of  the 
whole  Danish  army ;  and  so  probably  they  made  a  merit  of 
necessity,  and  pretended  not  to  care  who  entered  and  who 
left  the  province.  Considering  the  critical  state  of  the  rela- 
tions of  Denmark  with  Germany  at  the  moment,  I  was  much 
struck  with  the  enlightened  and  civilized  treatment  which 
the  traveller  met  with  on  both  sides.  Although  pontoon- 
trains  were  rumbling  through  the  streets  of  Rendsburg,  and 
engineers  were  taking  the  preliminary  steps  to  erecting  bat- 
teries which  should  command  the  Kronewerke,  and  the  town 
was  full  of  Saxon  and  Hanoverian  troops,  and  every  outward 
indication  was  in  favor  of  a  speedy  outbreak  of  hostilities, 
not  the  slightest  suspicion  attached  to  those  who  crossed 
or  recrossed  the  frontiers.  A  drawbridge  not  twenty  yards 
long  separated  the  German  from  the  Danish  sentry ;  every 
time  they  paced  it  they  almost  met  in  the  centre.  At  one 
end  of  the  bridge  floated  the  German,  at  the  other  the  Dan- 
ish, flag.  Groups  of  Danish  soldiers  inspected  groups  of 
German  soldiers,  at  twenty  yards  apart,  as  prize-fighters  do 
before  the  fight  begins  3  and  the  peaceable  inhabitants  of  the 
town  came  to  look  at  the  combatants  eying  each  other. 
One  seemed  to  be  standing  on  a  volcano  with  a  very  thin 
crust,  indeed.  Observing  people  pass  both  sentries  unchal- 
lenged, I  followed  the  example,  and  in  two  minutes  found 
myself  in  Schleswig.     Soldiers,  with  the  little  red-and-white 


3l8  EPISODES    IN  A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE, 

cockade  of  Denmark  in  their  caps,  were  far  more  occupied, 
it  seemed  to  me,  in  making  preparations  to  resist  the  expect- 
ed attack  than  their  opponents  were  in  carrying  out  their 
aggressive  works. 

Two  strong  lines  of  pahsades,  loop-holed  for  musketry, 
flanked  the  bridge ;  and  an  erection  of  some  description, 
the  nature  of  which  I  could  not  exactly  discover,  was  in  prog- 
ress on  a  commanding  position.  The  Kronewerke  is.  the 
tete  de  pont  on  the  Schleswig  side  of  the  bridge  which  crosses 
the  Eider ;  there  were  a  few  buildings  used  for  barracks  near 
it,  and  in  a  semicircular  form  surrounding  it  was  the  district 
claimed  by  Holstein,  and  which  contained  six  villages,  in 
most  of  which,  at  the  moment  of  my  visit,  Danish  troops 
were  billeted.  It  was  then  reported  to  be  the  intention  of 
General  Hake,  commanding  the  Federal  army  of  execution, 
to  summon  the  Danish  general  to  evacuate  the  position  ; 
and  the  Danish  general  having  announced  his  determination 
not  to  comply  with  this  summons,  a  conflict  was  considered 
imminent.  It  did  not  ultimately  take  place,  because  the 
Federals  were  not  in  sufficient  force,  and  the  Saxon  general 
did  not  wish  to  summon  either  the  Prussian  or  Austrian 
contingents  to  his  assistance.  The  jealousy  which  then 
existed  between  the  Federals  and  the  armies  of  the  two 
great  German  powers  might  have  been  exasperated  with 
immense  advantage  to  the  Danes  at  this  early  stage  of  the 
war. 

It  was  never  properly  understood  in  this  country  that  both 
the  Federal-German  army  and  the  Danish  army  had  a  common 
enemy  which  they  hated  more  even  than  they  hated  each 
other,  and  this  was  the  Prussian  army.  They  both  had  the 
same  policy  in  one  respect,  and  this  was  to  keep  their  quar- 
rel to  themselves,  and  not  allow  the  two  great  powers  to  in- 
terfere with  overpowering  force,  and  settle  the  matter  off-hand 
in  their  own  sense.  It  is  most  probable  that,  had  Prussia 
and  Austria  never  meddled  in  the  affair,  the  Germans  and 
Danes  would  have  fought  out  the  matter  with  pretty  equal 


THE   WAR    IN    SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN.  319 

chances  of  success  ;  but  the  moment  these  two  absolute  gov- 
ernments were  permitted  to  take  the  affair  in  hand  and  set- 
tle it  according  to  treaty,  they  obtained  the  control  of  the 
situation,  and  the  power  of  abusing  to  an  unlimited  extent 
the  confidence  reposed  in  them. 

After  an  unmolested  exploration  of  the  Kronewerke,  I  re- 
turned to  Holstein  by  way  of  the  railway  bridge.  Here,  too, 
German  and  Danish  sentries  were  keeping  amicable  guard, 
and  on  each  side  the  river  expanded  into  a  sort  of  lagoon, 
covered  with  ice,  on  which  boys  were  skating ;  and  firmly 
frozen  in  were  the  small  craft  which  represented  the  maritime 
commerce  of  Rendsburg.  Although  trains  were  running  reg- 
ularly at  this  time  from  Rendsburg  to  Schleswig,  I  preferred 
making  the  journey  in  an  open  wagon,  partly  for  the  sake  of 
seeing  the  country,  and  partly  for  the  convenience  of  being  able 
to  choose  my  own  hour  of  starting.  Rumbling  once  more  over 
the  drawbridge,  we  soon  found  ourselves  beyond  the  limits  of 
the  six  villages,  and  traversed  a  hard  frozen  road,  over  which 
our  well-roughed  horses  made  good  progress.  The  fields  on 
each  side  were  covered  with  a  thin  coating  of  snow,  and  divided 
with  hedges  as  in  England.  Farmhouses  were  few  and  far  be- 
tween, and  villages,  or  more  properly  hamlets,  very  rare.  In 
the  first  one  through  which  we  passed  we  observed  a  battery  of 
field-artillery ;  but  soldiers  were  not  moving  along  the  line,  and 
there  did  not  seem  any  intention  to  reinforce  the  troops  then 
occupying  the  Kronewerke.  According  to  the  usual  habit 
of  the  country,  we  stopped  at  a  half-way  house,  after  an  hour 
and  a  half's  drive,  for  a  glass  of  schnapps  and  a  bait,  and  then, 
once  more  facing  the  bleak,  cutting  wind,  we  trundled  merri- 
ly along,  by  the  light  of  a  rising  moon,  into  Schleswig,  On 
the  way  we  passed  the  railway  junction  of  Kloster  Krug,  the 
scene  of  rather  a  sharp  combat,  a  month  later,  between  the 
Danes  and  the  Austrians  ;  then  winding  between  the  low 
hills  crowned  with  the  batteries  of  the  Dannevirke,  we  entered 
the  long  town  of  Schleswig,  and  found  its  single  street 
encumbered  with  troops,  and  its  not  very  spacious  hotels 


320  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

crowded  with  officers.  We  were  upwards  of  an  hour  vainly 
trying  to  persuade  inhospitable  hotel-keepers  to  take  us  in. 
Being  all  German  in  sympathy,  they  were  in  no  very  amiable 
mood  at  finding  themselves  obliged  to  provide  accommoda- 
tion for  their  enemies  ;  and  it  was  only  after  much  persua- 
sion that  my  German  companion  induced  a  stanch  patriot  to 
turn  his  two  daughters  out  of  their  bedroom,  and  place  the 
accommodation  at  our  disposal.  This  mark  of  friendship 
and  confidence  warmed  our  hearts  to  our  host,  and  he  and  a 
waiter  with  strong  political  feelings  entertained  us  with  an 
account  of  their  grievances  till  a  late  hour.  Considering  that 
the  room  in  which  we  dined  was  crowded  with  Danish  officers, 
and  that  our  political  conversation  was  by  no  means  carried 
on  in  a  subdued  tone,  I  was  struck  with  the  proof  which 
this  episode  afforded  of  the  leniency  of  the  Danish  rule.  As 
compared  with  the  tyranny  of  despotic  governments,  the  ad- 
ministration of  these  provinces  by  Denmark  contrasted  most 
favorably ;  but  unfortunately  there  is  no  amount  of  political 
liberty  which  will  satisfy  the  sentiment  of  national  indepen- 
dence, which  is  in  most  instances  unreasonable ;  for  it  may  be 
safely  laid  down  as  an  axiom,  that  people  would  rather  gov- 
ern themselves  badly  than  let  other  people  govern  them  well. 
However,  I  do  not  mean  to  imply  by  this  that  Holstein, 
as  a  sovereign  German  duchy  separated  from  Denmark, 
would  not  be  governed  upon  liberal  and  enlightened  princi- 
ples, nor  can  it  be  said  that  the  rule  of  Denmark  has  been 
altogether  unexceptionable.  No  doubt  many  serious  griev- 
ances have  existed  :  still,  at  such  a  moment  of  political  agita- 
tion, the  freedom  of  speech  and  of  action  permitted  to  a 
population  avowedly  hostile  was  remarkable. 

We  were  roused  at  an  early  hour  the  following  morning  by 
strains  of  martial  music,  and  looking  out  of  the  window  we 
observed  regiments  forming  in  the  open  space  in  front  of  the 
hotel,  and  the  street  already  crowded  with  a  train  of  artil- 
lery and  ammunition  wagons.  Every  outward  indication  be- 
tokened the  confident  anticipation  of  the  speedy  outbreak  of 


THE   WAR    IN   SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN.  32  I 

hostilities ;  and  the  contrast  with  the  German  preparations 
which  were  going  on  at  Rendsburg  was  very  remarkable. 
There,  it  is  true,  things  looked  warlike,  but  it  was  in  a  sleepy, 
uncertain  sort  of  way  :  here  everything  was  activity  and  bustle. 
The  men  looked  bright  and  cheery,  the  officers  seemed  in 
high  spirits  at  the  prospect  of  a  fight.  The  laurels  of  their 
former  campaign  were  still  unwithered ;  and  they  believed 
they  would  reap  a  fresh  supply  whenever  the  attack  from 
Germany  should  come.  They  little  thought  then  that  the 
overwhelming  armies  of  the  two  great  German  powers  would 
be  employed  to  crush  them,  and  rightly  judged  that,  so  long 
as  they  only  had  the  Federal  troops  to  deal  with,  their  chances 
of  success  were  not  unequal.  Finding  a  battery  of  artillery 
bound  apparently  upon  a  military  promenade,  my  friend  and 
I  followed  it  upon  speculation,  passing  the  old  castle  of  Got- 
torp,  a  huge,  ugly  building,  like  a  factory,  prettily  situated. 
We  found  ourselves  winding  along  some  narrow  country 
lanes,  and  afraid  that  the  officer  in  command  of  the  battery 
might  imagine  we  were  spies,  we  kept  at  a  respectful  distance, 
scrambling  across  ploughed  fields  and  over  deep-rutted  coun- 
try roads,  until  the  glitter  of  bayonets  in  another  direction  re- 
vealed to  us  the  objects  of  the  promenade.  On  striking  a 
high-road  we  found  troops  moving  in  large  masses  into  the 
batteries  of  the  Dannevirke,  which  crowned  the  hills  we  had 
been  ascending.  Although  we  were  the  only  civilians,  no 
notice  was  taken  of  us,  and  we  were  allowed  to  explore  at 
leisure  this  celebrated  fortification.  As  I  walked  along  the 
covered  ways  which  connected  together  the  nineteen  or  twen- 
ty separate  forts,  each  bristling  with  cannon  and  surrounded 
by  ditches  and  chevaux  de /rises,  I  thought  I  saw  in  prospec- 
tive the  grave  of  many  of  the  brave  men  who  were  now  drawn 
up  within  the  lines  in  all  the  display  of  a  grand  military  re- 
view; but  even  then  the  inadequacy  of  the  force  was  ap- 
parent to  the  most  unskilled  in  military  matters.  The  de- 
fences of  the  Dannevirke  consisted  of  no  less  than  three  dif- 
ferent ramparts,  one  four  miles  long,  one  two  miles  long,  and 
14* 


322  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

one  fourteen  miles  long.  When  in  addition  to  this  twenty 
miles  of  earthwork  is  added  the  position  of  Frederickstadt 
and  the  whole  line  of  the  Schlei,  it  is  difficult  to  comprehend 
why  the  Danes  should  ever  have  seriously  thought  of  making 
a  stand  against  an  overwhelming  force,  with  the  troops  at 
their  disposal.  That  a  hundred  thousand  men  could  make 
the  position  impregnable  is  scarcely  to  be  doubted  ;  and 
from  the  earliest  times  this  line  of  defence  has  been  regarded 
by  the  Danes  as  their  natural  military  frontier.  Traditions 
as  far  back  as  the  tenth  century  exist  to  prove  that,  even  at 
that  remote  period,  the  military  instinct  of  the  people  had 
led  them  to  execute  a  line  of  defence  which  the  most  ad- 
vanced stage  of  civilization  should  adopt,  and  render  cele- 
brated in  the  future  history  of  the  country.  The  subsequent 
evacuation  of  the  Dannevirke  divested  it,  however,  of  that  in- 
terest which,  before  the  war  began,  it  possessed  in  the  eyes 
of  those  who  considered  that  the  tide  of  German  invasion 
would  meet  here  its  first  check. 

I  cannot  say  that,  standing  on  the  crisp  snow  which  cov- 
ered the  heights  of  the  Dannevirke,  and  looking  on  the  proud 
array  of  men  drawn  up  behind  its  intrenchments,  I  antici- 
pated that  in  less  than  two  months  they  would  be  struggling 
for  bare  life  in  Jutland.  I  have  seldom  seen  an  army  which 
looked  more  business-like  and  full  of  fight ;  nor,  it  must  be 
admitted,  did  they  afterwards  show  themselves  wanting  in 
any  of  the  finer  qualities  of  a  soldier.  Numbers  alone  drove 
them  to  their  last  intrenchments,  and  the  want  of  numbers 
alone  compelled  them  to  evacuate  the  strong  position  they 
were  now  holding.  In  a  plain  on  the  extreme  right  were 
drawn  up  the  cavalry,  and  behind  the  batteries  upon  the 
heights  were  massed  the  artillery  and  infantry.  About  mid- 
day the  king,  surrounded  by  his  staff,  and  accompanied  by 
the  crown-prince  and  the  unfortunate  General  de  Meza,  who 
afterwards  had  reason  to  regret  that  he  ever  had  any  con- 
nection with  the  Dannevirke,  rode  along  the  line ;  but  pre- 
vious to  his  arrival  a  general  order,  in  the  patriotic  sense,  was 


THE   WAR    IN    SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN,  323 

read  by  the  colonels  to  each  regiment  formed  into  square. 
Then  the  king  himself  passed  them  in  review,  and  ad- 
dressed to  each  division  a  few  stirring  words,  which  were 
received  with  cheers  and  every  appearance  of  enthusiasm. 
It  was  an  interesting  and  exciting  spectacle,  not  so  much 
on  account  of  the  display  itself,  as  from  the  political  sig- 
nificance which  attached  to  it.  It  was  a  hard  day's  work 
scrambling  over  the  stiff,  half-frozen  ground  from  one  bat- 
tery to  another,  along  the  ridges  of  hills  for  miles  ;  but  we 
were  repaid,  as  well  by  the  good-fortune  which  had  led  us 
so  opportunely  to  the  spot,  as  by  the  lovely  view  over  the 
town  of  Schleswig,  the  broad  frozen  Schlei,  and  the  wood- 
crowned  hills  in  rear  ;  and  when  at  last  we  reached  the  town 
hungry  and  tired,  we  were  more  than  consoled  by  our  day's 
work,  and  gained  much  interesting  information  from  a  young 
Danish  officer,  whose  sanguine  anticipations  of  the  result  of 
the  impending  hostilities  have  certainly  not  been  realized. 
The  trains  continued  to  run  between  Schleswig  and  Rends- 
burg  exactly  as  if  those  two  towns  were  not  occupied  by  hos- 
tile armies;  and  there  was  no  hinderance  to  my  walking 
straight  out  of  the  Dannevirke  down  to  the  booking-office, 
and  being  within  an  hour  in  the  office  of  General  Hake  at 
Rendsburg,  narrating  my  experiences,  if  so  it  had  pleased  me. 
However,  the  liberality  and  unsuspiciousness  of  the  Danes 
v.'ere  so  great,  it  would  have  been  most  unworthy  to  abuse  it ; 
and  I  went  back  to  Holstein  in  a  reticent  frame  of  mind,  with 
a  higher  opinion  of  the  Danish  army,  and  of  their  powers  of 
resistance,  than  I  had  before,  and  with  a  stronger  conviction 
of  the  inevitable  certainty  of  a  speedy  outbreak  of  hostilities. 
As,  at  this  crisis  in  the  Dano-German  question,  European 
diplomacy  had  taken  the  complication  fairly  in  hand,  and 
was  disporting  itself  recklessly  in  its  meshes,  a  residence 
in  Kiel  lost  a  good  deal  of  the  piquancy  which  the  popular 
enthusiasm,  and  the  uncertainty  of  political  events,  had 
imparted  to  it  on  the  occasion  of  my  first  arrival.  I  got 
tired  of  skating  out  to  sea,  down  the  magnificent  harbor  of 


324  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE    OF   ADVENTURE, 

Kiel,  over  miles  of  unsurpassed  ice  ;  of  listening  to  canards, 
which  proved  oftener  false  than  true  ;  and  of  getting  up  in 
my  leisure  hours  the  genealogical  tree  of  the  House  of  Old- 
enburg. But  while  Holstein  was  hushed  in  the  calm  which 
preceded  the  storm,  the  Prussian  Prime-Minister,  Count  Bis- 
marck, was  arranging  some  very  lively  combinations  indeed  at 
Berlin.  The  operations  of  so  skilled  an  artist  could  not  be 
other  than  a  profitable  study,  so  I  repaired  to  that  extremely 
dull  and  pedantic  city,  and  watched  with  interest  the  progress 
of  that  diplomacy  which  resulted  in  the  precipitate  and  unex- 
pected crossing  of  the  Eider.  The  general  impression  which 
prevailed  in  Berlin  just  before  that  event  took  place  was  that 
it  could  not  possibly  come  off  until  the  middle  of  February. 
Indeed,  a  review  of  the  army  was  fixed  for  the  2d,  and  an- 
nounced as  publicly  as  possible,  in  order  that  the  Danes 
might  be  thrown  off  their  guard,  and  the  crossing  effected  on 
the  ist  with  less  chance  of  opposition.  The  fact  was,  that 
Berlin  had  been  worked  up  to  a  martial y^r^r;  the  military 
element,  which  is  largely  preponderating  and  highly  influen- 
tial, was  burning  for  distinction.  It  had  found  its  only  de- 
velopment, for  many  years  past,  in  the  tightness  of  the  uni- 
form which,  in  the  mind  of  the  Prussian  officer,  at  once  ele- 
vates him  into  a  cherub,  or  some  such  superior  order  of  being 
— though  it  did  seem  unnatural  that,  being  already  provided 
with  wings,  he  should  wish  to  add  spurs.  The  fact  is,  that 
except  in  the  last  Holstein  war,  when  they  were  beaten  by 
the  Danes,  the  Prussians  had  seen  no  fighting,  and  it  would 
have  cost  even  Bismarck  his  place  had  he  attempted  to  stem 
the  torrent  of  military  ardor  which  his  policy  had  excited, 
which  carried  away  societ}',  and  which  sent  even  the  stalwart 
prime-minister  whirling  down  the  flood  rather  faster  than  he 
originally  intended. 

As  I  found  everybody  of  distinction  going  to  Holstein,  and 
as  I  had  good  reason  to  believe  that  the  public  was  purpose- 
ly left'  in  error  with  reference  to  the  crossing  of  the  Eider,  I 
started  off  once  more  to  the  scene  of  action,  and  arrived  in 


THE   WAR    IN    SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN.  325 

Kiel  on  the  night  of  the  31st  of  January.  The  news  brought 
in  by  the  waiter,  with  coffee,  was  that  a  sanguinary  battle  had 
taken  place  at  5  a.m.,  and  that  the  Danish  army  was  routed 
and  retreating.  This  ultimately  dwindled  down  to  two  shots 
exchanged  and  a  Dane  slightly  wounded.  But  the  important 
fact  remained — the  Kider  had  been  crossed,  and  the  right 
thing  to  do  was  clearly  to  cross  it  also.  So  thought  a  knot 
of  friends  collected  in  the  street,  which,  although  the  hour 
was  early,  was  already  full  of  gossiping  groups  ;  so,  after 
swallowing  a  hasty  breakfast,  I  found  myself,  with  four  eager 
patriots  and  Mr,  Hardman,  the  Times  correspondent,  seated 
in  an  open  cart  of  the  country,  provided  with  three  cross 
benches,  rattling  over  the  hard  frozen  road  as  rapidly  as  a 
pair  of  stout  nags  could  drag  us. 

In  an  hour  we  had  reached  the  Eider,  which  here  pre- 
sented the  appearance  of  a  canal  rather  than  of  a  river,  and 
is  spanned  by  a  drawbridge  to  allow  the  passage  of  boats. 
The  bridge-keeper,  who  had  been  accused  of  spying  for  the 
Danes,  was  already  in  custody,  and  his  family,  grouped  around 
the  door  of  their  abode,  watched  the  invading  battalions  cross- 
ing the  narrow  bridge.  Since  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
when  the  leading  regiments  crossed  without  resistance,  one 
incessant  stream  of  troops  had  been  pouring  into  Schleswig, 
and  we  arrived  just  in  time  to  hear  the  triumphant  cheers  of 
the  rear-guard  as  they  passed  out  of  one  duchy  into  the  oth- 
er. Soon  we  overtook  the  artillery,  and  our  pace  was  re- 
duced to  a  walk.  The  roads  were  like  ice,  and  the  unroughed 
artillery  and  cavalry  horses  slipped  about  terribly  ;  but  every 
face  beamed  with  animation,  and  it  was  easy  to  perceive  in 
the  ruddy,  youthful  countenances  of  the  men,  full  of  hope  and 
eagerness,  that  they  were  new  to  the  work.  Here  were 
no  rugged,  furrowed  visages,  such  as  betoken  a  veteran 
army.  The  serious  business  of  war  was  to  these  men  as  yet 
a  holiday  pastime  :  laughter  and  songs  rang  in  the  clear, 
frosty  air,  and  our  unpretending  wagon,  with  its  six  "civil" 
occupants^  was  the  subject  of  an  incessant  volley  of  chaff  as 


326  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

we  squeezed  our  way  to  the  front.  There  was  a  goodly 
sprinkling  of  Kielers  on  foot,  making  their  way  to  see  the 
fun  ;  students  of  the  college,  with  little  red  caps,  trudged 
along  with  newspaper  correspondents  and  amateur  specta- 
tors. The  boom  of  distant  cannon  sent  a  thrill  down  the  line 
as  it  broke  in  upon  the  merriment,  and  a  cart  conveying  a 
sick  dragoon  to  the  rear  gave  matters  a  serious  look,  for  we 
supposed  him  to  be  wounded.  Everybody  was  eager  to 
push  on,  and  a  little  after  midday  we  entered  the  half-way 
village  of  Gettorf  Here  the  population  was  in  a  condi- 
tion of  frantic  enthusiasm  ;  the  taproom  of  the  village  inn 
was  filled  with  a  noisy  multitude  of  soldiers  and  country  peo- 
ple fraternizing,  drinking,  and  singing  "  Schleswig-Holstein 
meer  umschlungen,"  Flags  were  waving,  and  Duke  Fred- 
erick had  been  already  proclaimed  amid  the  applause  of  the 
populace.  Taking  advantage  of  a  halt  in  the  line,  we  pushed 
on  through  scenery  less  tame  than  that  through  which  we 
had  already  passed  ;  the  country  became  more  undulating, 
and  at  one  point  the  road  passed  through  a  thick  wood,  and 
over  a  hill  which  would  have  afforded  a  defensible  position. 
Probably  the  movement  on  the  part  of  the  Prussians  had 
been  too  sudden  to  admit  of  the  Danes  profiting  by  it ;  the 
firing  had  long  since  ceased ;  indeed,  we  had  only  heard 
one  or  two  shots ;  but  now  we  met  two  carriages  driving  in 
all  haste  towards  Kiel.  These  contained  the  Austrian  and 
Prussian  ministers  on  their  way  from  Copenhagen,  We 
were  also  informed  that  the  firing  we  had  heard  proceeded, 
in  the  first  instance,  from  two  Danish  war-steamers,  which 
had  thus  greeted  the  leading  columns  of  the  Prussian  army 
as  they  debouched  from  the  wood  on  to  the  shores  of  the 
bay.  Except  slightly  wounding  a  horse,  they  did  no  dam- 
age ;  and  on  the  artillery  coming  up  and  opening  fire,  the 
wooden  ships  were  compelled  to  get  under  way ;  and  when 
we  came  upon  the  scene  of  action  they  were  no  more  visi- 
ble. The  artillery  which  had  been  so  recently  engaged  were 
in  position  on  a  range  of  hills  overlooking  the  harbor,  and 


THE   WAR    IN    SCHLESVVIG-HOLSTEIN.  327 

two  or  three  round-shot  were  embedded  by  the  side  of  the 
road  which  ran  along  their  base.  We  had  now  passed  the 
whole  of  the  column  which  had  originally  impeded  our  prog- 
ress, and  drove  into  Eckernfiorde  in  style.  As  only  quite  the 
leading  regiments  had  entered,  and  were  still  billeting  them- 
selves, we  were  fortunate  enough  to  find  accommodation, 
but  not  repose.  The  town  presented  a  scene  of  confusion 
and  excitement  perfectly  bewildering;  the  whole  population 
seemed  bent  upon  forcing  the  Prussian  soldiers  to  share 
their  patriotic  emotion.  They  embraced  them,  drank  with 
them,  sang  with  them,  cheered  them,  and  paraded  the  streets 
with  them.  The  population  of  the  town  is  only  about  six 
thousand  ;  but  they  made  noise  enough  for  ten  times  that 
number.  Flags  were  being  hung  out  in  evtry  direction  ;  prov- 
ident patriots  had  brought  some  from  Kiel  :  stripes  of  red, 
white,  and  blue  were  being  hastily  patched  together,  and  flut- 
tered from  every  house-top,  except  from  the  mansion  iinme- 
diately  opposite  the  hotel,  which  was  inhabited  by  a  medical 
man  with  Danish  sympathies — because,  as  I  understood,  his 
practice  had  been  chiefly  among  Danish  employees.  How- 
ever that  may  be,  it  spoke  well  both  for  Danes  and  Germans 
that  he  should  at  such  a  moment  have  the  courage  to  stand 
alone.  He  could  not,  however,  prevent  a  number  of  pretty 
daughters  looking  out  upon,  and  taking  a  lively  interest  in, 
the  animated  scene  below.  For  just  in  front  of  the  hotel 
popular  demonstrations  kept  going  off  like  fireworks;  every 
now  and  then  a  stern  officer  dashed  through  the  crowd  on 
special  service,  and  scorned  to  notice  the  political  excitement 
around  him.  Probably  he  had  very  vague  ideas  on  the  sub- 
ject, and  knew  as  little  of  the  Schleswig-Holstein  question  as 
the  British  public  or  the  officers  of  the  Austrian  army,  who 
"  wondered  how  it  was  that,  being  in  an  enemy's  country, 
the  people  should  all  be  so  civil,"  Presently  a  great  crowd 
gathered  at  the  hotel  door,  and  forming  into  a  sort  of  pro- 
cession, went  off  to  the  market-place  singing  the  national 
anthem.    I  followed  it,  and  was  chiefly  struck  by  the  stern  re- 


328  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

bukes  which  respectable  citizens  administered  to  any  member 
of  the  crowd  disposed  to  be  too  boisterous,  and  the  submis- 
sive way  in  which  the  more  rowdy  element  received  reproof. 
Still  nothing  could  prevent  the  triumph  of  dragging  Prussian 
soldiers  along  to  assist  in  proclaiming  Duke  Frederick  ;  for 
these  simple  people  seemed  to  think  that  Bismarck  might  be 
touched  by  this  exhibition  of  sympathy  on  the  part  of  the 
Prussian  army. 

The  town-hall  of  Eckernfiorde  is  a  queer,  ramshackle  old 
place,  with  a  broad  flight  of  stone  steps  leading  up  to  it ; 
and  on  this  the  corporation  took  its  stand  ;  while  a  band 
played  vigorousl}',  and  people  shouted  themselves  hoarse, 
until  the  order  for  silence  was  given,  and  a  burly  burgher 
addressed  his  fellow-citizens  in  a  stentorian  voice,  congratu- 
lating them  upon  the  recovery  of  their  ancient  liberties,  com- 
plimenting the  Prussian  army  upon  having  taken  the  matter 
so  decidedly  in  hand,  expressing  his  sense  of  the  obligation 
they  were  under  to  them  for  rendering  possible  the  proclama- 
tion of  Duke  Frederick,  whose  name  was  coupled  with  many 
endearing  epithets,  and  was  received  with  most  enthusiastic 
applause.  "  Finally,"  said  the  speaker,  "  we  have  still  in  the 
town  a  rascally  Danish  burgomaster,  who  must  be  instantly 
requested  to  leave ;  but  of  course  the  people  will  not  think 
of  meddling — my  colleagues  and  myself  are  men  enough  for 
the  task  of  ejecting  him  !"  The  band  then  struck  up  a  sa- 
cred anthem,  and  every  head  was  bared,  while  all  joined  in  the 
well-known  words  of  the  hymn,  "God  our  strong  tower." 
After  which  the  mob  betook  themselves  again  to  parading 
the  streets  and  singing ;  while,  curious  to  see  the  result  of 
the  burgomaster  episode,  I  inquired  where  might  be  the  resi- 
dence of  that  worthy ;  and,  having  found  it,  lingered  in  a 
promiscuous  manner  at  a  neighboring  corner.  I  found  a 
good  many  other  persons  similarly  occupied  ;  and  in  a  few 
minutes  the  late  orator  and  his  friends  entered  the  silent 
mansion,  from  which,  of  course,  no  popular  flag  was  waving, 
and  which  was  conspicuous  by  its  gloomy  aspect.     I  don't 


THE    WAR    IN    SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN.  329 

exactly  know  what  there  was  to  expect.  I  am  half  afraid  I 
had  thought  a  stand-up  fight  possible  at  the  top  of  the  steps. 
At  all  events,  I  felt  rather  ashamed  of  the  idle  curiosity 
which  tempted  me  to  wait  for  a  report  of  the  interview.  It 
was  satisfactory  to  those  interested,  as  the  burgomaster  prom- 
ised to  vacate  the  premises  at  lo  p.m.  ;  meantime  some 
citizens  were  left  with  him  to  take  over  the  records.  This 
man  had  contrived,  apart  from  being  a  Dane,  to  make  him- 
self extremely  unpopular  in  the  province,  and  many  were  the 
stories  current  of  his  cruelty  and  injustice.  As,  however,  I 
am  not  aware  how  far  they  are  to  be  relied  upon,  and  as 
whatever  may  have  been  his  misdeeds  he  has  suffered  for 
them,  it  will  be  unnecessary  here  to  repeat  them.  At  a  later 
period  of  the  evening,  when  I  passed  the  house,  I  saw  two 
sentries  at  the  door,  so  that  he  had  applied  for  protection, 
fearing  some  popular  ebullition  of  feeling ;  ■  but  the  alarm 
was  groundless.  Even  the  Danes  must  render  justice  to  the 
people  of  both  the  duchies  for  the  moderation  they  dis- 
played in  the  moments  of  their  triumph.  A  very  primitive 
description  of  illumination,  consisting  simply  of  candles  in  all 
the  windows,  closed  the  day's  proceedings ;  but  all  night 
singing  went  on,  and  once  the  town  was  thrown  into  a  state 
of  excitement  by  the  report  of  the  return  of  the  Danish  men- 
of-war  in  the  darkness,  for  the  purpose  of  bombarding  it. 

As  it  was  understood  that  the  army  was  to  continue  its 
march  on  the  following  morning,  and  that  the  Danes  were  to 
be  attacked  in  a  position  called  Kochendorf,  distant  only  a 
few  miles  from  the  town,  we  secured  a  light  trap,  and,  with  a 
pair  of  wretched-looking  nags,  started  at  an  early  hour  in  rear 
of  the  army.  The  weather  was  still  cold,  but  raw  and  foggy, 
and  the  road  as  slippery  as  ever,  so  that  our  progress  was 
slow.  We  were  somewhat  puzzled,  after  getting  past  one 
division,  to  meet  some  batteries  which  had  received  the 
order  to  countermarch,  and  none  of  the  officers  whom  we 
asked  seemed  to  know  the  reason.  It  turned  out  afterwards 
that  Kochendorf  was  evacuated,  and  that  Prince  Frederick 


330  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE.' 

Charles,  afterwards  known  as  the  Red  Prince,  rather  than 
return  to  Eckernfiorde  re  mfecta,  had  determined  to  attack 
Missunde.  This  necessitated  another  disposition  of  troops, 
and  we  shortly  after  came  upon  the  vanguard  at  some  cross- 
roads near  the  village  of  Kosel,  and  were  brought  to  a  halt. 
Thinking  we  should  be  more  independent  without  it,  we  left 
our  wagon  at  this  point,  and,  when  the  order  was  given 
to  advance,  accompanied  the  head  of  the  column  on  foot. 
Passing  through  the  village,  the  inhabitants  of  which  were 
all  excitedly  collected  to  witness  from  afar  the  coming  en- 
gagement, I  ascended  a  hill,  on  which  stood  a  picturesque 
church,  and  from  the  churchyard,  filled  with  spectators,  was 
just  able  to  distinguish  with  my  glass  the  indistinct  forms  of 
the  Danish  skirmishers.  Unfortunately  the  mist  lay  so  heavy 
over  the  landscape  that  the  fortifications  of  Missunde  itself 
were  not  visible ;  and  after  leaving  the  churchyard  we  felt 
very  much  as  though  we  were  groping  our  way  in  the  dark 
as  we  approached  the  enemy's  position.  Soon  a  shot  from 
the  Danish  batteries  enlightened  us  as  to  their  exact  where- 
abouts, and  our  artillery  was  brought  up  into  position,  ex- 
tending itself  in  the  form  of  a  semicircle  along  the  crest  of 
the  hill.  Fortunately  the  frost  had  hardened  the  surface  of 
the  ploughed  land  across  which  the  guns  were  to  be  dragged. 
The  fields  were  divided  by  mud-banks  surmounted  by  hedges, 
and  pioneers  were  actively  employed  cutting  gaps  through 
them.  These  banks  afforded  very  comfortable  shelter  for 
amateurs  ;  but  the  firing  was  not  hot  enough  to  drive  one 
behind  them  for  long.  I  afterwards  understood  that  no 
fewer  than  seventy-four  pieces  of  ordnance  were  engaged  in 
the  bombardment;  but  I  only  counted  six  batteries,  and  the 
fire  was  not  kept  up  with  much  spirit.  In  fact,  the  fog 
seemed  to  exercise  a  depressing  influence  upon  all  con- 
cerned ;  our  extremities  were  very  cold ;  but  there  was  not 
even  excitement  enough  to  make  one  forget  one's  "poor 
feet."  The  unhappy  Danes  did  not  the  least  know  where 
the  infantry  was  massed,  and  could  only  judge  what  to  fire 


THE    WAR    IN    SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN,  33 1 

at  by  the  flashes  of  our  heavy  guns.  The  flashes  of  theirs 
alone  revealed  the  position  of  Missunde,  and  the  consequence 
was  that  comparatively  little  damage  was  done  on  either  side. 
The  enemy's  fire  was  necessarily  feeble,  as  they  had  but  few 
guns  in  position  ;  but  the  sound  of  shot  and  shell  was  evi- 
dently new  to  the  young  soldiers  who  composed  the  Prussian 
army,  and  who  paid  the  tribute  of  respect  to  a  whistling  shell 
common  to  novices.  Once  I  perceived,  advancing  dimly 
through  the  fog,  the  line  of  Danish  skirmishers,  and  thought 
that  some  life  was  about  to  be  infused  into  the  monotonous 
artillery  combat,  which  had  lasted  for  about  two  hours;  but 
they  halted  two  fields  distant,  and  retreated  in  good  order, 
having  apparently  made  themselves  acquainted  with  our  posi- 
tion. On  the  extreme  right,  picturesquely  situated  by  the 
side  of  a  small  frozen  meer,  stood  a  mill ;  and  we  determined 
to  explore  in  that  direction,  as  the  fire  had  slackened  on  the 
left.  Making  a  short  cut  across  the  ice,  which  in  one  or  two 
places  had  been  split  with  round-shot,  we  found  a  regiment 
of  cavalry  galloping  in  hot  haste  along  a  narrow  lane  tow- 
ards the  enemy,  and  two  regiments  drawn  up  in  a  field,  ap- 
parently waiting  the  order  for  an  attack.  The  Danes  had 
got  the  range  pretty  well,  and  their  riflemen  were  keeping  up 
a  well-sustained  fire.  Though  we  could  not  make  out  the 
direction  from  which  they  came,  so  thick  was  the  fog,  their 
hissing  little  messengers  went  flying  about  like  invisible 
grasshoppers  ;  and  wounded  men  went  scrambling  to  the 
rear,  or  got  their  comrades  to  carry  them  there  in  their  great- 
coats ;  for  no  stretchers  had  come  up,  and  ambulances  were 
nowhere  to  be  seen — in  fact,  nothing  could  have  been  worse 
than  the  arrangements  for  the  wounded.  Now  and  then  one 
went  to  the  rear  attended  by  quite  an  unnecessary  quantity 
of  comrades  ;  but,  on  the  whole,  the  men  behaved  quite  as 
well  as  could  have  been  expected  of  raw  troops  ;  and  when 
at  last  the  order  came  to  advance  on  the  intrenchments,  they 
skirmished  up  with  alacrity  to  within  three  hundred  yards  of 
the  enemy,  losing  in  so  doing  a  good  many  men.     The  ob- 


332  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE    OF    ADVENTURE. 

ject  of  the  move  was  to  cover  the  retreat  of  the  artillery.  It 
had  never  from  the  first  been  intended  to  storm  Missunde. 
As  the  result  proved,  this,  as  well  as  every  other  fortification 
on  the  line,  would  inevitably  have  to  be  evacuated ;  and  it 
would  have  been  difficult  to  have  suggested  a  more  useless 
afternoon's  amusement  than  was  provided  for  the  Prussian 
army  on  the  2d  of  February,  1864.  The  men  with  whom  I 
conversed,  as  we  toiled  back  towards  the  village,  seemed 
rather  mystified,  as  well  they  might  be,  with  the  whole  opera- 
tion. We  had  neither  achieved  a  success,  nor  been  repulsed, 
nor  done  anything  except  to  stand  to  be  fired  at  throughout 
the  greater  part  of  a  raw,  misty  afternoon.  And  now,  the 
fact  that  our  shells  had  set  fire  to  some  houses  in  Missunde, 
which  were  blazing  luridly  through  the  fog,  was  a  poor  tri- 
umph. Fighting  on  these  terms  was  not  such  good  fun  after 
all.  Though  it  had  not  been  attended  with  much  danger — 
for  the  official  list  only  gave  forty  killed,  and  one  hundred 
and  eighty  wounded — we  had  been  the  only  spectators  at  all 
near  the  front,  and  we  found  a  cloud  of  German  newspaper 
correspondents  and  citizens  of  Kiel  in  the  village  eager  for 
sensation  intelligence,  which,  under  the  circumstances,  it  was 
difficult  to  provide.  However,  a  great  deal  of  sanguinary 
hand-to-hand  fighting,  which  never  took  place,  was  reported, 
with  many  graphic  details,  to  have  occurred  in  the  trenches. 
The  Prussian  army  was  supposed  to  have  covered  itself  with 
glory,  though,  even  at  this  moment  of  anti-Danish  excitement, 
the  anti-Prussian  feeling  was  so  strong  among  the  Holstein- 
ers  that  there  were  many  present  who  would  have  chuckled 
over  any  decided  reverse  which  could  have  happened  to  the 
Prussian  army. 

The  little  village  of  Kosel  did  not  promise  well  for  a  night's 
accommodation  ;  the  road  back  to  Eckernfiorde  would  be 
impassable  for  some  hours,  and  it  was  getting  late  enough 
to  make  us  feel  nervous  at  the  prospect  of  a  good  deal  of 
scrambling  and  discomfort  before  we  should  discover  quar- 
ters.   Fortunately  we  found  our  trap  with  the  two  rosinantes, 


THE   WAR    IN   SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN.  333 

and  were  sitting  speculating  in  what  direction  to  go,  when 
we  saw  a  road  leading  towards  the  enemy's  position  free  of 
all  encumbrance.  Along  this  we  determined  to  proceed,  in 
hopes  of  finding  a  village  unoccupied  by  troops.  There  was 
so  much  confusion  that  no  one  thought  of  preventing  our 
taking  a  line  which  led  us  straight  to  the  enemy;  and  in  five 
minutes  we  had  left  the  din  and  bustle  of  the  retreating  army 
behind  us.  There  was  something  startling  in  the  sudden 
change  to  solitude ;  and  in  about  half  an  hour  we  began  to 
wonder  how  far  we  might  be  from  the  nearest  Danes.  A 
clean  little  village,  a  charming  old-fashioned  roadside  inn, 
and  a  group  of  peasants  collected  round  the  porch,  was  a 
welcome  sight.  They  raised  their  hands  in  astonishment 
at  our  appearance,  and  in  deprecation  of  our  venturing  any 
farther.  The  Danes,  they  said,  were  not  above  a  quarter  of 
an  hour  distant,  and  we  had  better  stay  at  the  inn  for  the 
night.  The  driver,  who,  like  a  true  patriot,  had  a  cockade 
in  his  hat,  was  recommended  to  dispense  with  that  little  ad- 
dition, and  he  became  altogether  v&xy  piano  at  the  unpleasant 
neighborhood  in  which  he  found  himself.  If  any  of  the  vil- 
lagers had  been  spies,  we  might  easily  have  been  made  pris- 
oners, had  that  been  worth  anybody's  while ;  but,  so  far  from 
this  being  the  case,  the  rustics  seemed  to  take  courage.  We 
were  the  first  "  Germans  "  they  had  seen.  Their  faces  beamed 
with  joy  at  the  proof  which  our  presence  afforded  of  the  real- 
ity of  a  speedy  deliverance  from  their  present  masters;  and, 
to  my  great  regret,  they  began  to  sing,  in  subdued  voices  it 
is  true,  that  eternal  "  Schleswig-Holstein  meer  umschlun- 
gen,"  with  the  air  of  which  by  this  time  I  had  become  disa- 
greeably familiar.  The  empresscment  of  our  host  and  hostess, 
the  alacrity  of  a  neatly-dressed,  sprightly  Hebe,  who  lin- 
gered in  the  room  a  great  deal  more  than  was  actually  neces- 
sary, to  gossip  with  us  about  the  Danes,  and  to  hear  our 
news  about  the  battle,  made  us  congratulate  ourselves  upon 
our  good-fortune.  While  those  with  the  army  were  lodging 
in  barns,  we  had  a  most  luxurious  inn  all  to  ourselves.    And 


334  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

when,  after  the  fatigues  of  the  day,  we  had  discussed  an  ad- 
mirably cooked  dinner,  and  drew  round  the  fire,  with  the 
usual  accompaniments  to  the  digestive  process,  we  thought 
that  there  were  worse  places  in  the  world  than  Fleckeby, 
and  that  it  was  decidedly  pleasanter  to  be  in  front  of  an  ad- 
vancing army  than  in  rear.  The  line,  it  must  be  admitted, 
is  rather  a  delicate  one  to  hit :  for  armies  in  this  relative 
position  to  each  other  are  constantly  performing  the  process 
known  as  "feeling  each  other;"  and  if  they  "feel  you"  be- 
tween them,  the  results  are  not  satisfactory.  However,  there 
is  an  excitement  in  being  ahead  of  everything,  which,  added 
to  the  extra  comfort,  makes  the  alternative,  even  though  the 
risk  be  added,  the  most  agreeable.  We  had  a  long  discus- 
sion, before  "  turning  in,"  upon  our  plans  for  the  morrow,  the 
question  being  whether  it  were  better  to  return  to  the  Prus- 
sian army,  on  the  chance  of  another  attack  on  Missunde, 
and  the  crossing  of  the  Schlei,  or  whether  we  should  not  make 
an  exploration  towards  the  Austrian  headquarters,  on  the 
chance  of  an  attack  upon  the  Dannevirke  coming  off.  We 
were  about  an  hour's  drive  from  the  Dannevirke  in  our  pres- 
ent position ;  and  although  our  host  gave  us  very  precise 
information  as  to  the  whereabouts  of  the  Danes,  one  was 
never  sure  of  escaping  reconnoitring  parties.  There  is  no 
doubt  that,  as  amateurs,  we  should  have  been  much  better 
treated  in  the  Danish  than  in  the  Prussian  army,  so  that  it 
would  have  been  rather  good  policy  to  have  "fallen"  into 
the  hands  of  the  enemy,  had  it  not  involved  a  return  to  Eng- 
land by  way  of  Copenhagen,  an  operation  for  which  I  could 
not  afford  the  time.  All  our  plans  were  frustrated  next  morn- 
ing by  the  change  in  the  weather.  The  mists  of  the  day  be- 
fore were  succeeded  by  hurricanes  of  wind,  with  a  violent 
beating  rain,  that  made  campaigning  a  most  unpleasant  occu- 
pation. Another  attack  on  Missunde  or  the  crossing  of  the 
Schlei  was  clearly  out  of  the  question,  so  we  decided  in  favor 
of  the  left  wing.  While  we  were  standing  watching  discon- 
solately the  storm-gusts  succeeding  each  other,  the  familiar 


THE   WAR    IN    SCHLESVVIG-HOLSTEIN.  335 

uniform  of  the  Austrian  army  suddenly  turned  a  corner  of 
the  road,  and  an  officer  in  command  of  a  picket  rushed  up 
the  steps  of  our  cheery  hostel  to  find  warmth  and  food.  Al- 
though, when  he  gave  his  orders  to  the  sergeant,  his  mouth 
was  full  of  beefsteak,  I  understood  the  Italian  in  which  they 
were  conveyed ;  and  he  started  when,  after  having  allowed 
him  to  enter  into  details,  I  made  a  remark  in  the  same  lan- 
guage. He  had  not  calculated  upon  this  in  a  remote  corner 
of  Schleswig,  and  evidently  at  once  set  me  down  as  a  spy. 
It  was  in  vain  to  attempt  afterwards  to  extract  a  word  of 
information  from  him.  He  would  neither  say  where  he  had 
come  from,  where  he  was  going  to,  which  roads  were  safe, 
which  occupied  by  the  enemy.  The  more  questions  I  asked, 
the  more  suspicious  naturally  did  he  become,  and  he  declined 
at  last  even  to  condole  with  me  on  the  state  of  the  weather. 
Getting  impatient  of  inaction,  we  determined  on  being  storm- 
stayed  no  longer ;.  and  being  assured  by  our  host  that  the 
Austrian  headquarters  were  at  a  village  called  Lottorf,  we 
ordered  our  driver  to  take  us  there.  For  more  than  an  hour 
we  followed  lanes  and  cross-roads  without  meeting  a  soul: 
at  last  I  became  sceptical  about  the  direction,  and  we  stopped 
at  a  hamlet,  and  were  informed  that  we  had  passed  the  turn- 
ing to  Lottorf  some  time  since;  that  no  troops  had  appeared 
in  the  immediate  neighborhood,  but  that  firing  had  been 
heard.  As  whenever  hostile  armies  are  at  all  near  each 
other,  firing  is  always  being  heard  by  the  country  people, 
whether  there  is  any  or  not,  we  did  not  believe  this  latter 
part  of  the  story,  and  decided,  as  we  had  passed  Lottorf, 
not  to  go  back  there,  but  to  push  on  and  trust  to  Providence. 
It  afterwards  turned  out  that,  had  we  gone  to  Lottorf,  we 
should  have  gone  straight  into  the  Danish  lines,  as  the  ene- 
my was  holding  the  position  in  force.  However,  in  blissful 
ignorance  of  this  narrow  escape,  we  kept  on,  still  wondering 
where  any  army  was.  We  were  in  the  very  middle  of  the 
position,  and  could  not  see  a  uniform  of  any  kind.  It  was 
not  until  we  reached  the  village  of  Breckendorf  that  we  ob- 


336  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE    OF   ADVENTURE. 

served  some  Austrian  vedettes  on  the  hilltops,  and  saw  men 
creeping  about  in  the  fields  reconnoitring.  Still  we  could 
not  believe  in  the  proximity  of  the  Danes,  unless,  indeed, 
we  had  come  through  them  without  knowing  it.  We  said 
as  much  to  the  Austrian  officer  in  command,  who  replied 
that  he  did  not  know  what  had  become  of  the  enemy,  and 
that  he  was  going  to  call  in  his  scouts.  If  we  could  only 
have  suspected  that  we  had  actually  been  passing  over  ground 
which  in  another  hour  was  to  be  one  of  the  most  hotly  con- 
tested fields  of  the  war,  we  should  have  looked  at  it  with 
greater  interest.  If  we  had  left  Fleckeby  an  hour  or  two 
later,  we  should  have  tumbled  into  the  middle  of  the  battle 
of  Ober  Selk;  as  it  was,  the  villainous  weather  and  the  ab- 
sence of  any  sign  of  the  enemy  induced  us  to  push  on  to 
headquarters,  in  the  hope  of  getting  some  good  information. 
The  difficulty  was  to  find  out  where  headquarters  were.  Ev- 
ery officer  we  asked  told  us  a  different  place:  some  thought 
we  were  spies,  others  did  not  know  themselves,  or  pretended 
they  did  not ;  so  we  found  ourselves  approaching  Rendsburg, 
simply  because  there  was  no  other  place  to  go  to. 

The  country  through  which  we  had  passed  since  leaving 
Fleckeby  was  not  devoid  of  a  rugged  beauty,  and,  from  its 
diversified  character,  formed  a  pleasing  contrast  to  other 
parts  of  Holstein.  The  hills,  though  not  high,  were  in  places 
scarped,  and  granite  boulders  lay  strewn  at  their  base;  while 
here  and  there  we  observed  tumuli  which  had  all  the  ap- 
pearance of  having  been  artificially  constructed.  However, 
we  had  neither  time  nor  inclination  for  geological  observa- 
tion. From  a  military  point  of  view,  the  country  was  ad- 
mirably adapted  for  skirmishing,  and  the  battle,  which  took 
place  at  midday,  was  a  sort  of  running  fight  over  the  hills, 
the  Danes  slowly  retreating  upon  the  Dannevirke,  some  five 
or  six  miles  distant,  standing  on  the  hilltops,  and  pouring 
down  upon  the  advancing  Austrians  destructive  volleys  of 
musketry.  They  disputed  effectively  one  position  after  an- 
other all  through  the  afternoon,  the  Austrians  only  achiev- 


THE   WAR   IN   SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN.  337 

ing  their  day's  success  at  the  price  of  thirty  officers  and 
upwards  of  five  hundred  men  killed  and  wounded.  It  was 
in  a  narrow  lane  that  we  met  the  division  of  Gondecourt, 
on  whom  this  loss  was  inflicted,  marching  unconsciously  to 
their  fate.  We  had  as  little  idea  as  they  seemed  to  have  of 
the  bloody  work  awaiting  them ;  and  as  regiment  after  regi- 
ment passed,  and  the  officers  inquired  of  us  how  far  it  was 
to  their  night-quarters,  neither  they  nor  we  suspected  the 
long  sleep  on  the  hillside  that  was  in  store  for  many  of  them. 
At  the  head  of  the  column  rode  Gondecourt  himself,  and 
splashing  through  the  deep  mire  after  him  came  regiments 
of  Galicians,  Hungarians,  and  Styrians,  the  latter  with  sprigs 
of  pine  in  their  caps.  We  were  obliged  to  draw  up  for  nearly 
an  hour  to  let  the  long  train  of  artillery  and  transport  go  by, 
and  as  we  watched  the  various  nationalities  pass,  we  could 
not  help  being  struck  with  the  strange  political  inconsistency 
which  enabled  the  oppressors  to  use  the  oppressed  to  fight 
against  oppression.  It  was  a  curious  feature  of  the  Schles- 
wig-Holstein  question  that  it  should  have  reversed  all  our 
positions ;  and  that  while  the  Prussians  and  Austrians  appa- 
rently found  themselves  contending  for  the  cause  of  national- 
ity, we  should  so  vehemently  have  expressed  our  sympathies 
against  it. 

Having  only  the  day  before  been  present  w'ith  the  Prussian 
army,  I  had  a  good  opportunity  of  comparing  it  with  the 
Austrian  troops  who  were  now  marching  past.  The  differ- 
ence was  sufficiently  marked.  The  youthful,  light-hearted 
Prussian  seemed  to  go  into  action  as  a  new  experience,  but 
did  not  inspire  much  confidence  in  his  steadiness;  the  Aus- 
trian, on  the  other  hand,  worn  and  rugged,  often  brutalized 
in  expression,  plodded  on  like  a  machine.  The  Prussian  , 
looked  intelligent  enough  to  understand  the  Schleswig-Hol- 
stein  question  :  the  Austrian  looked  as  if  brandy  and  tobacco 
constituted  the  sum  total  of  his  ideas;  but  he  was  every  inch 
a  "professional,"  the  others  looked  like  amateurs.  Never- 
theless, two  years  afterwards  the  amateurs  gave  the  profes- 
15 


338  EPISODES    IN   A    LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

sionals  a  bad  time  of  it.  How  it  was  we  did  not  hear  the 
firing  which  took  place  a  short  time  after  we  had  passed  the 
column  we  could  not  make  out,  so  close  to  it  must  we  have 
been.  However,  we  pushed  on  to  Rendsburg,  more  for  the 
purpose  of  dining  than  anything  else ;  and  afterwards  having 
received  definite  information  as  to  the  locality  of  the  head- 
quarters, we  started  once  more  along  by-lanes,  which  brought 
us  out  ultimately  on  the  pretty,  undulating  shores  of  the  Wit- 
tensee,  a  very  considerable  lake.  By  this  time  it  was  getting 
dark,  but  we  were  far  from  the  end  of  our  fatigues.  Follow- 
ing the  somewhat  vague  directions  of  a  jovial  innkeeper,  we 
finally,  more  by  good  luck  than  good  management,  discov- 
ered the  remote  hamlet  of  Damendorf,  where  General  Von 
Wrangel  had  fixed  his  headquarters;  but  he  and  his  staff, 
having  heard  the  firing,  were  witnessing  the  battle  which  we 
had  missed,  and  came  back  late  with  the  news.  As  there 
was  no  corner  in  which  to  lay  our  heads,  we  had  nothing  for 
it  but  to  push  on  to  Eckernfiorde.  Here,  again,  every  table 
was  occupied,  to  say  nothing  of  the  beds.  Our  horses  were 
incapable  of  moving  another  yard,  but  we  determined  to 
struggle  on  to  Kiel,  and  about  midnight  were  once  more  en 
route  with  fresh  nags.  Our  bad  luck  this  night  pursued  us ; 
for  we  met  a  train  of  no  less  than  fifteen  hundred  wagons, 
conveying  stores  to  the  army,  and  spent  the  whole  night 
scraping  past  them,  at  the  constant  risk  of  finding  an  unex- 
pected bed  in  a  ditch.  It  was  4  a.m.  before  I  was  once  more 
ensconced  in  a  snug  bed,  after  twenty  hours  spent  in  an  open 
wagon  —  the  greater  number  of  them  in  storms  of  rain  or 
sleet. 

As  we  received  positive  information  at  Kiel  that  the  grand 
attack  on  the  Dannevirke  was  to  take  place  on  the  following 
day,  we  made  another  night -journey  by  carriage  to  Rends- 
burg,  reaching  that  town  at  three  in  the  morning,  and  leaving 
it  again  shortly  after  daybreak  in  a  pitiless  snow-storm.  We 
followed  the  high-road  to  Schleswig,  the  same  which  I  had  trav- 
ersed more  than  a  month  before ;  but  which,  as  we  soon  found 


THE   WAR    IN   SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN,  339 

to  our  cost,  was  no  longer  free  to  the  traveller.  To  the  Prus- 
sian guards  which  protected  the  rear  of  the  army  was  assigned 
the  duty  of  making  war  upon  Germany,  while  the  front  was 
conquering  the  Danes.  Not  even  officers  of  the  Federal 
army  in  uniform  were  allowed  by  these  jealous  guardsmen 
to  penetrate  their  lines,  and  every  civilian  was  regarded 
either  as  a  Danish  spy  or,  what  was  still  more  odious,  a 
member  of  the  National  Verein.  We  were  the  first  of  a  se- 
ries who  were  subsequently  expelled  from  the  neighborhood 
of  military  operations  for  our  political  opinions.  Not  that 
the  intelligent  colonel  who  refused  to  allow  us  to  pass  had 
the  least  idea  what  our  sentiments  were  ;  but  all  Englishmen 
are,  in  the  eyes  of  the  Yunker,  revolutionary,  and  a  danger 
not  merely  to  society,  but  even  to  the  discipline  of  an  army. 
The  Prussian  officer,  as  a  rule — which,  like  every  other,  has 
brilliant  exceptions — prides  himself  upon  being  a  soldier  and 
nothing  else.  He  generally  succeeds  to  admiration  in  this 
limited  ambition,  so  far  as  his  bearing  to  the  rest  of  the  world 
is  concerned ;  but  the  fact  to  some  extent  accounts  for  the 
unpopularity  of  the  class  generally.  One  may  affect  military 
precision  without  allowing  it  to  degenerate  into  rudeness, 
and  maintain  the  dignity  of  one's  profession  without  showing 
contempt  for  all  who  do  not  belong  to  it — all  which  reflec- 
tions were  suggested  to  me  by  the  extremely  uncivil  treat- 
ment I  received,  first  from  a  colonel,  and  then  from  a  general, 
simply  because  I  asked  to  be  allowed  to  go,  as  I  had  done 
two  days  before,  to  headquarters.  The  elements  combining 
with  the  colonels  to  make  any  connection  with  the  fortunes 
of  the  Prussian  army  most  disagreeable,  I  determined  to  quit 
the  scene  of  operations ;  and,  as  it  turned  out  afterwards,  I 
missed  nothing,  for  the  night  I  left  Schlesvvig  the  Dannevirke 
was  evacuated,  and  I  should  have  been  detained  some  time 
longer  had  I  waited  to  see  the  subsequent  operations  in  Jut- 
land. I  therefore  lost  no  time  in  making  the  best  of  my  way 
home. 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

THE     MORAL     OF     IT     ALL, 

One  result  of  the  erratic  and  somewhat  turbulent  life  I 
had  been  leading,  described  in  the  foregoing  pages,  was  to 
place  me  in  communication  with  sources  of  political  infor- 
mation of  altogether  exceptional  value.  The  misfortune  was 
that  it  was  of  so  confidential  a  character  that  it  was  difficult 
to  use  it  to  advantage  in  any  organ  of  the  public  press  of 
which  one  had  not  absolute  control.  For  instance,  a  confer- 
ence was  at  that  time  sitting  in  London  on  the  Schleswig- 
Holstein  question,  consisting  of  plenipotentiaries  of  all  the 
European  powers  who  had  been  parties  to  the  Treaty  of  Lon- 
don, the  proceedings  at  which  were  kept  absolutely  secret ; 
yet  a  few  days  after  each  meeting  I  received  from  abroad  an 
accurate  report  of  everything  that  had  transpired  at  it — and 
this,  I  hasten  to  say,  through  no  one  connected  with  our  own 
Foreign  Office,  I  felt  bursting  with  all  sorts  of  valuable  knowl- 
edge, with  no  means  of  imparting  it  in  a  manner  which  suited 
me,  when  one  day,  at  a  little  dinner  at  which  Sir  Algernon 
Borthwick,  Mr.  Evelyn  Ashley,  and  the  late  Mr,  James  Stew- 
art Wortley  were  present,  when  the  denseness  of  the  British 
public  in  matters  of  foreign  policy  was  being  discussed,  it 
was  suggested  that  a  little  paper  should  be  started  by  way 
of  a  skit,  in  which  the  most  outrageous  canards  should  be  given 
as  serious,  and  serious  news  should  be  disguised  in  a  most 
grotesque  form.  In  fact,  we  wanted  to  see  to  what  extent 
society  could  be  mystified.  Sir  A.  Borthwick  kindly  under- 
took to  print  the  absurd  little  sheet,  which  appeared  a  week 
or  two  after  under  the  name  of  The  Otvl,  and  which,  I  think, 


THE    MORAL   OF    IT   ALL.  341 

was  the  only  instance  of  a  paper  on  record  which  paid  all  its 
expenses — which,  if  I  remember  right,  amounted  to  £ie^ — by 
the  sale  of  its  first  number.  When  it  was  found  that  it  was 
likely  to  be  profitable,  we  arranged  that  the  proceeds  should 
be  applied  to  our  common  entertainment ;  and  while  we  in- 
trigued politicians  by  the  accuracy  of  our  information,  we  ex- 
cited the  curiosity  of  society  to  the  highest  pitch,  not  merely 
by  maintaining  our  anonymity,  but  by  the  evidences  which 
our  spasmodic  little  publication  afforded  that  we  were  thor- 
oughly behind  the  scenes.  With  the  close  of  the  season 
T/ie  Oivl  retired  to  roost  for  the  time,  and  I  made  a  trip  into 
Italy  to  watch  the  progress  of  events  in  the  Peninsula.  In 
the  following  year  a  general  election  took  place,  and  I  entered 
Parliament. 

Most  people  are,  I  suppose,  more  or  less  conscious  of 
leading  a  sort  of  double  life — an  outside  one  and  an  inside 
one.  The  more  I  raced  about  the  world,  and  took  as  active 
a  part  as  I  could  in  its  dramatic  performances,  the  more 
profoundly  did  the  conviction  force  itself  upon  me,  that  if  it 
was  indeed  a  stage,  and  all  the  men  and  women  only  play- 
ers, there  must  be  a  real  life  somewhere.  And  I  was  always 
groping  after  it  in  a  blind,  dumb  sort  of  way — not  likely,  cer- 
tainly, to  find  it  in  battle-fields  or  ballrooms,  but  yet  the  re- 
flection was  more  likely  to  force  itself  upon  me  when  I  was 
among  murderers  or  butterflies  than  at  any  other  time. 
Now  that  I  found  myself  among  politicians,  I  think  it  forced 
itself  upon  me  more  strongly  than  ever.  Here  was  a  stage, 
indeed,  on  which  I  had  proposed  to  myself  to  play  a  serious 
part.  It  was  for  this  I  had  applied  myself  to  the  study  of 
European  politics,  for  this  I  had  supplied  myself  with  valu- 
able sources  of  information.  I  had  learned  my  part,  but 
when  it  came  to  acting,  it  seemed  to  dwindle  into  most  mi- 
nute proportions.  It  is  true  that  just  at  this  juncture  the 
British  legislature  was  far  more  occupied  with  the  cattle- 
plague  than  with  foreign  affairs,  and  that  the  disinfecting  of 
railway  trucks  was  regarded  as  a  subject  of  absorbing  inter- 


342  EPISODES    IN   A   LIFE   OF   ADVENTURE. 

est,  second  only  in  importance  to  the  Reform  Bill  which  fol- 
lowed. The  House  of  Commons  does  not  yet  seem  to  have 
learned  the  lesson  that  voters  are  like  playing-cards.  The 
more  you  shufiEle  them  the  dirtier  they  get.  When  it  became 
clear  to  me  that,  in  order  to  succeed,  party  must  be  put  be- 
fore country,  and  self  before  everything,  and  that  success 
could  only  be  purchased  at  the  price  of  convictions,  which 
were  expected  to  change  with  those  of  the  leader  of  the 
party  —  these,  as  it  happened,  were  of  an  extremely  fluctu- 
ating character,  and  were  never  to  be  relied  upon  from  one 
session  to  another — my  thirst  to  find  something  that  was  not 
a  sham  or  a  contradiction  in  terms  increased.  The  world, 
with  its  bloody  wars,  its  political  intrigues,  its  social  evils, 
its  religious  cant,  its  financial  frauds,  and  its  glaring  anoma- 
lies, assumed  in  my  eyes  more  and  more  the  aspect  of  a  gi- 
gantic lunatic  asylum.  And  the  question  occurred  to  me 
whether  there  might  not  be  latent  forces  in  nature,  by  the 
application  of  which  this  profound  moral  malady  might  be 
reached.  To  the  existence  of  such  forces  we  have  the  testi- 
mony of  the  ages.  It  was  by  the  invocation  of  these  that 
Christ  founded  the  religion  of  which  the  popular  theology 
has  become  a  travesty,  and  it  appeared  to  me  that  it  could 
only  be  by  a  reinvocation  of  these  same  forces — a  belief  in 
which  seemed  rapidly  dying  out — that  a  restoration  of  that 
religion  to  its  pristine  purity  could  be  hoped  for. 

I  had  long  been  interested  in  a  class  of  psychic  phenome- 
na which,  under  the  names  of  magnetism,  hypnotism,  and 
spiritualism,  have  since  been  forcing  themselves  upon  public 
attention,  and  had  even  been  conscious  of  these  phenomena 
in  my  own  experiences,  and  of  the  existence  of  forces  in 
my  own  organism  which  science  was  utterly  unable  to  ac- 
count for,  and  therefore  turned  its  back  upon,  and  relegated 
to  the  domain  of  the  unknowable.  Into  this  region — mis- 
called mystic — I  determined  to  try  and  penetrate.  Look- 
ing back  upon  the  period  of  my  life  described  in  the 
foregoing  pages,  it  appeared  to  me  distinctly  a  most  insane 


THE   MORAL   OF    IT  ALL.  343 

period.  I  therefore  decided  upon  retiring  from  public  life 
and  the  confused  turmoil  of  a  mad  world,  into  a  seclusion 
where,  under  the  most  favorable  conditions  I  could  find,  I 
could  prosecute  my  researches  into  the  more  hidden  laws 
which  govern  human  action  and  control  events.  For  more 
than  twenty  years  I  have  devoted  myself  to  this  pursuit ;  and 
though  from  time  to  time  I  have  been  suddenly  forced  from 
retirement  into  some  of  the  most  stirring  scenes  which  have 
agitated  Europe,  the  reasons  which  compelled  me  to  partici- 
pate in  them  were  closely  connected  with  the  investigation 
in  which  I  was  engaged,  the  nature  of  which  is  so  absorbing, 
and  its  results  so  encouraging,  that  it  would  not  be  possible 
for  me  now  to  abandon  it,  or  to  relinquish  the  hope  which  it 
has  inspired,  that  a  new  moral  future  is  dawning  upon  the 
human  race — one  certainly  of  which  it  stands  much  in  need. 
As,  however,  this  latter  conviction  has  not  yet  forced  itself 
upon  a  majority  of  my  fellow-men,  who  continue  to  think  the 
world  is  a  very  good  world  as  it  is,  and  that  the  invention 
of  new  machines  and  explosives  for  the  destruction  of  their 
fellow-men  is  a  perfectly  sane  and  even  laudable  pursuit,  I 
will  refrain  from  entering  further  for  the  present  upon  such 
an  unpopular  theme.  Perhaps  the  day  may  come,  though  it 
cannot  be  for  many  years,  when  I  may  take  up  the  thread  of 
my  life  where  I  have  dropped  it  here,  and  narrate  some  epi- 
sodes which  have  occurred  since,  which  I  venture  to  hope 
that  the  public  of  that  day  will  be  more  ready  to  appreciate 
than  those  to  whom,  with  the  warmest  feelings  of  attach- 
ment and  compassion,  I  respectfully  dedicate  these  pages. 


THE    END. 


HAIFA;  OR,  LIFE  IN  MODERN  PALESTINE. 

By  Laukence  Oliphant,  Author  of  "Altiora  Peto," 
"Piccadilly,"  etc.  Edited,  with  Introduction,  by 
CiiAKLEs  A.  Dana.  pp.  viii.,  370.  Crown  8vOj 
Cloth,  U  T5. 


"  Mr.  Olipbant,  during  his  residence  of  more  than  three  years  in  the 
Holy  Land,  explored  the  country  thoroughly.  He  studied  the  domestic 
and  religious  life  of  the  people,  visited  the  places  connected  with  moment- 
ous events  in  Bible  history,  and  he  writes  in  the  light  of  the  latest  re- 
searches. From  the  first  page  to  the  last  the  reader's  interest  is  stimulated 
by  the  charm  of  personal  adventure  which  gives  to  the  author's  descrip- 
tions a  fascinating  reality."  

Mr.  Oliphant  is  a  delightful  writer,  full  of  enthusiasm  which  be  knows 
how  to  make  others  feel.  ...  As  a  book  of  travels  alone  it  is  deeply  inter- 
esting, whether  read  in  the  easy-chair  or  used  by  tourists  as  a  learned 
and  accurate  guide  to  the  Holy  Land.  To  Biblical  students  it  is  indispen- 
sable, bringing  up  to  a  late  date  the  authentic  intelligence  of  investiga- 
tions which  throw  so  much  light  on  the  Scripture  narratives.  —  H.  Y. 
Journal  of  Commerce. 

The  pages  of  this  book  are  crowded  with  descriptions,  rich  in  Oriental 
color,  as  well  as  with  legends  and  anecdotes  of  the  most  interesting  kind. 
Mr.  Oliphant  certainly  knows  the  secret  of  keeping  up  the  reader's  interest, 
for  before  you  begin  to  tire  of  one  scene  he  hurries  you  by  camel  or  mule 
across  the  plain  or  over  the  mountain  to  another.  .  .  .  The  work  is  as  en- 
tertaining as  good  fiction,  and  whoever  reads  it  will  leave  its  last  page  with 
regret. — llie  Epoch,  N.  Y. 

A  work  of  interest,  in  which  life  in  modern  Palestine  is  described  from 
the  point  of  view  of  a  writer  who  is  both  man  of  the  world  and  religious 
enthusiast. — Philadelphia  Press. 

The  result  of  the  personal  observation  of  the  writer  during  a  recent 
residence  of  three  or  four  years  in  the  Holy  Land.  It  is  the  most  distinct 
and  interesting  account  yet  published  of  the  country  and  its  people,  of 
the  remains  of  antiquity  to  bo  found  there,  and  of  the  questions  which 
explorers  are  called  to  consider  regarding  them. — Saturday  Evening  Ga- 
zette, Boston. 

A  vivid  account  of  the  Holy  Land  of  to-day,  as  seen  by  an  enthusiastic 
lover  of  the  country. —  Critic,  N.  Y. 

It  is  the  most  distinct  and  interesting  account  yet  published  of  the 
country  and  its  people,  of  the  remains  of  antiquity  to  be  found  there,  and 
of  the  questions  which  explorers  are  called  to  consider  regarding  them. — 
Christian  at  Work,  N.  Y. 

Published  by  HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  New  York. 

«S-  The  above  work  sent  by  mail,  postage  prepaid,  to  any  part  of  the  United  States 
or  Canada,  on  receipt  of  the  price. 


SOME   LITERAKY   RECOLLECTIONS. 

By  James  Patn,  Author  of  "  A  Beggar  on  Horseback," 
'  "  By  Proxy,"  etc.    With  Portrait,     pp.  205.    12rao, 
Cloth,  $1  00. 

"  This  book  contains  a  slight  but  most  entertaining  account  of  Mr. 
Payn's  life,  recounting  in  a  very  humorous  manner  the  experiences  of  his 
boyhood,  at  home  and  in  the  various  schools  where  he  received  his  early 
education;  his  first  literary  aspirations  and  achievements;  the  difficulties 
and  discouragements  which  he  encountered  at  the  outset  of  his  career  in 
the  domain  of  letters,  and  his  gradual  progress  to  a  position  of  assured 
success.  Upon  this  autobiographical  thread  arc  skilfully  strung  brilliant 
and  graphic  descriptions  of  eminent  authors  with  whom  he  was  brought 
into  contact,  professionally  and  socially,  as  a  writer  and  an  editor;  remi- 
niscences of  his  intercourse  with  them ;  information  as  to  their  peculiar- 
ities and  manner  of  work ;  and  occasional  critical  comments  upon  their 
productions.  The  recollections  embrace  WhewelJ,  De  Quincey,  Miss  Mit- 
ford.  Miss  Martineau,  William  and  Robert  Chambers,  Dean  Ramsay,  Alex- 
ander Smith,  Dickens,  Leech,  Reado,  Trollope,  Collins,  Thackeray,  and 
many  others  of  lesser  note.  The  spirit  in  which  Mr.  Payn  writes  of  his 
fellow-craftsmen  is  one  of  the  most  generous  and  enthusiastic  appreciation 
and  sympathy.  The  book  sparkles  with  wit,  is  full  of  clever  anecdotes, 
and  is  extremely  bright  and  vivacious  from  beginning  to  end." 


The  fine  portrait  is  a  pleasure  to  begin  with;  then  follow  two  hundred 
pages  of  anecdote  and  recollection  and  comment,  all  the  more  delightful 
for  being  rambling  and  desultory  to  a  degree  that  excludes  even  a  thread 
of  connection.  The  greatest  charm  of  the  book  is  even  less  its  humor 
than  the  tender  gentleness  and  good-will  of  its  tone  about  everybody  and 
everything. —  The  Critic,  N.  Y. 

One  of  the  most  charming  little  books  that  have  come  under  our  notice 
for  some  time.  A  bright,  breezy  style,  a  delightful  naturalness,  and  a 
joyousness  of  spirit  pervade  the  reminiscences. — Boston  Advertiser. 

His  sketches  of  his  contemporaries,  great  and  small,  are  among  the 
most  entertaining  things  that  he  has  ever  written.  His  sketch  of  the  de- 
lightful old  Englishwoman,  Mary  Russell  Mitford,  is  the  finest  tribute  that 
has  yet  been  paid  to  her  memory.  Charming  also,  in  another  way,  is  his 
portrait  of  that  hearty,  overgrown  boy,  William  Makepeace  Thackeray. — 
N.  Y.  Mail  and  Express. 

His  style  is  bright  and  free,  what  he  says  is  always  said  to  the  point, 
and  he  does  not  make  a  great  ado  about  himself. — N.  Y.  World. 

No  more  delightful  compend  of  reminiscences  has  been  given  us  for 
many  years. — N.  Y.  Sun. 


Published  by  HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  New  York. 

~  The  above  work  sent  by  mail,  postage  prepaid,  to  any  part  of  the  United  States 
or  Canada,  on  receipt  of  the  price. 


A  MEMOIR  OF  CHARLES  READE. 

Charles  Eeade,  D.C.L.,  Dramatist,  Novelist,  Journalist. 
A  Memoir  compiled  «cbielly  from  liis  Literary  He- 
mains.  Bj  CiiAKLES  L.  ItEADE  and  the  Rev.  Comp- 
TON  EEiU^E.  pp.  X.,  448.  12mo,  Cloth,  $1  25  ;  4to, 
Paper,  25  cents. 

We  may  congratulate  ourselves  on  tlie  fact  that  this  memoir  has  been 
written  by  two  of  his  nearest  relatives,  who  have  had  access  to  all  his 
private  papers,  in  addition  to  au  intimate  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Reade. 
They  have  thus  been  able  to  give  us,  not  one  of  the  great  biographies  of 
men  of  letters,  but  a  very  racy  and  amusing  book. — Examiner,  N.  Y. 

It  has  been  long,  though  i-ather  vaguely,  known  that  the  late  Charles 
Reade  not  only  possessed  a  crisp  and  biting  style  of  his  own,  but  a  strong- 
ly marked  individuality,  and  that  his  life,  far  from  being  a  commonplace, 
conventional  existence,  would,  considered  merely  as  a  story,  be  well  worth 
telling.— iV:  Y.  Sun. 

One  of  the  most  deeply  interesting  biographies  of  the  day.  It  gives  an 
insight  into  a  life  strongly  individual,  electric,  with  swift  sympathies  and 
vivid  impressions,  erratic  at  times,  yet  always  essentially  noble  and  gen- 
erous. It  is  a  life  that  impresses  the  reader,  and  whose  interest  is  almost 
as  graphic  as  that  of  a  romance.  .  .  .  The  work  is  one  of  marvellous  in- 
terest and  fulness.  It  throws  side-lights  on  literary  life,  reveals  the  inner 
side  of  dramatic  production,  and  is  a  wonderfully  many-colored  and  many- 
sided  work. — Boston  Evening  Traveller. 

It  will  be  read  with  unusual  interest  on  account  of  the  abiding  popu- 
larity of  Charles  Reade's  writings  and  the  strength  and  individuality  of 
his  character.  Like  other  biographies  issued  within  recent  years  of  the 
great  literary  workers  of  the  past  generation,  it  throws  much  light  upon  a 
period  which  will  rank  as  among  the  most  important  and  influential  pe- 
riods in  the  history  of  English  literature. — Albany  I'imes. 

This  book,  besides  being  strange,  is  wonderfully  interesting.  It  pictures 
a  human  life  that  not  only  touched,  but  was  interwoven  with,  the  lives  of 
numbers  of  the  most  remarkable  persons  of  tlie  last  two  generations. 
Bulwer,  Dickens,  Thackeray,  Macaulay,  Edwin  Arnold,  Wilkie  Collins,  Dion 
Boucicault,  Ellen  Terry,  John  Oxenford,  Macready,  Anthony  Trollope,  Bur- 
nand — who  wrote  in  Punch  "  Chicken  Hazard,"  as  a  burlesque  on  the 
story  of  "Foul  Play,"  written  by  Reade  and  Boucicault  in  collaboration  — 
are  but  a  few  of  the  figures  who  are  dealt  with  in  these  pages ;  and  there 
is  not  only  something  about  all  of  them  that  most  people  will  want  to 
read,  but  something  that  tends  to  define  and  make  clear  Charles  Reade's 
true  literary  position. — N.  Y.  Herald. 


Published  cy  HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  New  York. 

t3~  The  above  work  sent  by  mail,  postage  prepaid,  to  any  part  of  the  United  States 
or  Canada,  on  receipt  of  the  price. 


FROM  THE  FORECASTLE  TO  THE  CABIN. 

By  Captain  S.  Samuels.     Illustrated,     pp.  xviii.,  308. 

12mo,  Extra  Cloth,  $1  50. 


"The  record  of  a  life  of  stirring  adveuturc.  Captain  Samuels  began 
liis  career  by  running  away  to  sea  at  the  age  of  eleven  years  as  a  cabin- 
boy  ;  at  twenty-one  he  was  captain  of  a  fine  ship,  and  he  retired  from 
the  active  pursuit  of  his  profession  when  commander  of  the  famous  clip- 
per Dreadnought.  He  tells  his  experiences  in  tempests  and  mutinies,  in 
fights  with  pirates  and  street  ruffians,  in  romantic  escapades,  in  collisions, 
and  in  battles  with  cannibals.  As  a  yachting  commander,  Captain  Sam- 
uels sailed  the  Henrietta,  which  won  the  ocean  sweepstakes  in  1866,  and 
he  commanded  the  Dauntless  in  her  race  with  the  Coroncty 


"Captain  Samuels  has  given  me  the  privilege  of  reading  the  proof-sheets 
of  the  following  pages,  and  has  asked  me  to  introduce  him  to  the  public. 
I  cannot  conceive  of  a  more  unnecessary  ceremony.  '  Good  wine  needs  no 
bush,'  and  '  From  the  Forecastle  to  the  Cabin '  has  not  a  dull  line  in  it. 
The  art  of  telling  a  story  is,  after  all,  as  an  Irishman  would  say,  a  gift, 
and  Captain  Samuels  certainly  has  that  gift.  I  read  to  some  friends  of 
not  uncritical  disposition  the  tale  to  be  found  in  chapters  twelve  and  thir- 
teen, and  they  paid  it  the  rare  compliment  of  asking  to  hear  it  again  the 
next  evening.  In  fact,  a  volume  crowded  with  so  much  and  such  various 
incidents,  graphically  told,  could  not  fail  to  be  interesting." — Bishop  Pot- 
ter's Introductory  Note. 

A  vivid  picture  of  life  on  shipboard,  and  a  stirring  narrative  of  personal 
experience.  .  .  .  Bishop  Potter  well  says  that  the  book  has  not  a  dull  line 
in  it.  The  captain  has  the  art  of  telling  a  story  in  high  perfection. — 
N.  Y.  Tribune. 

The  story  is  full  of  interest  and  excitement.  ...  It  is  a  charming  book. 
— N.  Y.  Commercial  Advertiser. 

The  book  is  one  of  great  interest.  ...  It  is  the  story  of  a  famous  and 
able  sailor,  told  by  himself  in  his  own  way,  and  has  incident  enough  to 
fix  the  attention  and  set  going  the  imagination  of  anybody. — N.  Y.  Sun. 

It  will  take  the  front  rank  among  the  books  of  adventure  on  the  sea. — 
Boston  Courier. 


Published  by  HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  New  York. 

"*  The  above  work  sent  by  mail,  postage  prepaid,  to  any  part  of  the  United  States 
or  Canada,  on  receipt  of  the  price. 


THE  STARTLING  EXPLOITS  OF 
DR.  J.  B.  QUIES. 

From  the  French  of  Paul  Celieke.  By  Mrs.  Cashel 
IIoEY  and  Mr.  John  Lillie,  Profusely  illustrated. 
pp.  xii.,  328.     Crown  8vo,  Extra  Cloth,  $1  75. 


"The  hero  of  the  story,  Dr.  Quits,  is  a  wealthy  frenchman,  a  resident 
of  a  provincial  town,  who  is  addicted  to  archaeology  and  lias  a  mortal  an- 
tipathy to  travel.  But  in  an  unlucky  hour  he  is  induced  to  take  a  jour- 
ney by  rail  some  distance  from  home ;  and  partly  by  the  malicious  con- 
trivance of  a  rival  archaeologist  who  is  jealous  of  his  fame,  and  partly  in 
consequence  of  a  series  of  mishaps,  he  becomes  involved  in  a  course  of  in- 
voluntary wanderings.  The  book  abounds  in  laughable  situations,  arising 
from  the  conflict  between  the  doctor's  desire  to  be  at  rest  and  the  per- 
verse fate  which  urges  him  on,  and  it  will  be  read  with  unflagging  inter- 
est.    The  illustrations  are  numerous  and  characteristic." 


All  is  as  simple  and  as  natural  as  the  tales  that  children  love,  and  there 
seems  to  have  been  pleasure  rather  than  pride  in  the  telling.  The  person 
who  cannot  enjoy  pure  fun  in  such  guise  is  an  object  for  commiseration. — 
iV.  Y.  Coimnercial  Advertiser. 

A  most  amusing  and  fantastic  book,  illustrated  with  great  cleverness. 
...  It  would  be  hard  to  find  any  emanation  from  the  French  press  of  the 
day  more  harmlessly  entertaining,  and,  it  may  be  added,  instructive. — 
Brooklyn  Eagle. 

It  is  by  all  odds  the  most  amusing  book  of  the  season.  The  illustra- 
tions are  numerous  and  striking,  and  fit  in  as  appropriately  to  the  text  as 
the  familiar  Pickwick  pictures. — Boston  Post. 

It  is  intensely  funny. — Commercial  Bulletin,  Hoston. 

The  obese  doctor's  exploits  in  Algeria  are  all  so  unique  and  well  told 
that  the  volume  is  made  at  once  a  thing  of  beauty  and  a  joy — let  us  hope 
— f oreve  r. — PJdladelplda  Press. 

As  entertaining  a  book  as  has  been  written  since  the  Pickwick  Papers, 
and  the  central  figure,  although  his  adventures  are  of  quite  a  different 
kind,  will  inevitably  suggest  the  President  of  the  Pickwick  Club.  .  .  .  The 
humor  is  delightful,  and  is  admirably  sustained  from  beginning  to  end. — 
Boston  Journal. 

A  book  which  has  much  of  the  wild  imagination  as  well  as  the  elastic 
power  of  Jules  Verne. — San  Francisco  Chronicle. 


Published  by  HARPER  k  BROTHERS,  New  York. 

SS'  The  above  work  sent  hy  mail,  postage  prepaid,  to  any  pai't  of  the  United  States 
■  or  Canada,  on  receipt  of  the  price. 


A  TRAMP  TRIP. 

How  to  See  Europe  on  Fifty  Cents  a  Day.  By  Lee 
Meriwether.  With  Portrait,  pp.  276.  12mo, 
Ornamental  Cloth,  $1  25. 


"  In  the  garb  of  a  working-man  Mr.  Meriwether  spent  a  year  on  a  tramp 
trip  from  Gibraltar  to  the  Bosporus.  His  book  overflows  with  entertain- 
ing incidents  and  amusing  descriptions,  and  it  is  of  particular  value  in  its 
hints  and  suggestions  to  would-be  pedestrians,  and  to  others  who  wish  to 
travel  wisely  and  economically." 

An  uncommonly  interesting  volume. — N.  Y.  Tribune. 

The  book  is  full  of  interesting  incidents  and  accidents  that  befell  the 
writer  on  his  trip,  and  contains  many  entertaining  stories  of  the  manner  of 
life  of  the  peasants,  as  well  as  many  facts  and  tigures  on  the  much  dis- 
cussed "  Labor  Question." — Independent,  N.  Y. 

The  book  is  altogether  quite  out  of  the  range  of  and  above  ordinary 
volumes  of  travel,  and  will  give  a  fair,  comprehensive  idea  of  the  hard 
labor  and  miserable  poverty  of  the  European  masses.  To  do  this  was 
worth  all  the  trials  and  hardships  of  the  plucky  explorer,  who  seems  to 
have  enjoyed  his  uncomfortable  days  with  a  light  heart. — Nation,  N.  Y. 

There  is  not  a  dull  page  in  the  whole  book  ;  the  style  is  simple  and  per- 
spicuous, the  portrayal  of  character  keen  and  incisive,  the  deductions  from 
facts  clear  and  logical,  and  no  one  who  reads  it  can  help  envying  a  man 
who  succeeded  in  seeing  so  much  that  many  travellers  have  passed  by 
without  notice,  and  who  has  been  able  to  give  us  such  graphic  pictures  of 
the  home  life  and  the  simple  manners  and  customs  of  toiling  millions  be- 
yond the  sea. — Philadelphia  Record. 

Every  one  interested  in  travel  or  fond  of  out-door  sport  will  enjoy  it 
immensely. — Boston  Globe. 

Is  as  bright  and  wide-awake  in  its  style  as  it  is  unique  in  its  subject. 
— Boston  Daily  Advertiser. 

All  of  it  is  intensely  interesting,  and  we  congratulate  the  3'oung  fellow 
that  has  pluck  enough  to  carry  out  such  a  remarkable  scheme. —  Troy  Press. 

There  will  be  hundreds,  thousands  who  will  go  abroad  next  summer  to 
whom  this  book  may  give  advice  of  a  very  useful  sort. — BrooMijn  Times. 

A  thoroughly  readable  and  entertaining  book.  .  .  .  The  writer  put  on 
blouse  and  knapsack  and  wandered  through  parts  of  Italy  and  Germany 
and  Russia,  seeking  the  humblest  lodgings  and  putting  up  with  the  least 
inviting  fare  in  order  to  be  near  the  people,  to  see  them  in  their  homes,  to 
learn  how  they  earned  their  daily  bread  and  how  they  ate  it,  and  to  get  at 
their  views  of  life.  With  sharp  eyes  and  a  ready  wit  and  a  robust  diges- 
tion, he  saw  many  things  which  the  ordinary  traveller  would  never  notice 
or  indeed  care  to  see,  and  he  has  written  about  them  in  a  gay  and  jovial 
vein. — iV.  Y.  Commercial  Advertiser. 


Published  by  HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  New  York. 

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or  Canada,  on  receipt  of  the  price. 


WASTE -LAND  WANDERINGS. 

By  Chakles  C.  Abbott,  M.D.,  Author  of  "  Upland  and 
Meadow,"  &c.  pp.  xii,,  312.  Post  8vo,  Orna- 
mental Cloth,  $1  50. 


"  Dr.  Charles  C.  Abbott's  recent  work,  "  Upland  and  Meadow,"  was  pro- 
nounced by  enthusiastic  English  critics  to  be  "the  best  book  of  its  kind 
America  has  yet  produced."  Its  reception  from  the  press  in  this  coun- 
try was  scarcely  less  flattering,  and  in  the  course  of  a  few  months  it  has 
won  recognition  as  a  worthy  fellow  to  the  works  of  Thoreau  and  Bur- 
roughs. The  reputation  thus  obtained  by  Dr.  Abbott  as  a  sympathetic 
student  of  nature  will  be  confirmed,  if  not  greatly  enhanced,  by  this  work. 
.  .  .  Crosslands  Creek,  on  and  about  which  these  wanderings  occurred,  is  a 
meandering  stream  in  central  New  Jersey, "  that  flows  for  leagues  through 
a  wilderness  of  waste  land"  into  the  Delaware.  Here  the  naturalist  spent 
tli«  days  of  which  he  tells  in  his  new  volume,  cautiously  paddling  his  canoe 
from  point  to  point,  idly  floating  with  the  stream,  or  loitering  over  the  ad- 
joining woods  and  meadows,  while  with  untiring  patience  he  watched  the 
habits  and  dispositions  of  birds,  beasts,  fishes,  and  insects.  The  volume  is 
written  in  the  easy  and  graphic  style  which  lent  a  charm  to  Mr.  Abbott's 
previous  book,  and  its  descriptions  are  happily  interspersed  with  quaint 
reflections  and  amusing  anecdotes." 


Dr.  Abbott  is  a  true  lover  of  nature,  an  enthusiast,  and  a  poet.  Many 
passages  in  his  works  are  purely  idyllic  in  tone  and  sentiment,  and  there  is 
everywhere  delicacy  of  perception,  sprightly  fancy  and  imagination.  ...  It 
will  lead  men  to  love  nature  who  have  never  loved  it  before.  It  is  simply 
an  entrancing  book.^-77ie  Observer,  N.  Y. 

It  is  a  delightful  volume  for  the  sea-side,  the  mountains,  the  home,  for 
a  pleasant  day  and  a  stormy  one.  ...  It  suits  all  times,  places,  and  moods, 
and  will  be  pretty  sure  to  please  the  most  exacting  reader. —  Christian  at 
Work,  N.  Y. 

The  style  and  matter  are  both  so  captivating  that  we  place  this  book 
in  the  first  rank  of  works  of  its  class.  Water-snakes,  buzzards,  thrushes, 
herons,  flowers  of  all  kinds,  insects,  tortoises,  galliuules,  sand-pipers,  mead- 
ow-mice, bill-fish,  eels,  worm-fences,  and  catalpas,  with  many  other  matters, 
are  here  so  lucidly  described  and  entertainingly  pictured  that  the  reader 
is  beguiled  from  page  to  page.  As  a  book  for  summer  reading,  and  as  a 
stimulus  to  scientific  inquiry,  it  is  admirable. —  Christian  Advocate,  X.  Y. 

It  is  a  charming  book,  introducing  the  reader  to  the  interesting  guests 
and  dwellers  in  the  forests,  upon  the  downs,  and  by  the  river-side.  All 
lovers  of  nature  will  find  an  abundant  source  of  instruction  and  pleasure 
in  it. — Zion^s  Herald,  Boston. 


Published  by  HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  New  York. 

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THEIR  PILGRIMAGE. 

By  Charles  Dudley  Warner.     Richly  Illustrated  by  C.  S. 
Reinhart.     pp.  viii.,  364.     8vo,  Half  Leather,  $2  00. 


Aside  from  the  delicious  story — its  wonderful  portraitures  of  character 
and  its  dramatic  development — the  book  is  precious  to  all  who  know  any- 
thing about  the  great  American  watering-plaoes,  for  it  contains  incompar- 
able descriptions  of  those  famous  resorts  and  their  frequenters.  Even 
without  the  aid  of  Mr.  Reinhart's  brilliant  drawings,  Mr.  Warner  conjures 
up  word-pictures  of  Cape  May,  Newport,  Saratoga,  Lake  George,  Richfield 
Springs,  I\iagara,  the  White  Mountains,  and  all  the  rest,  which  strike  the 
eye  like  photographs,  so  clear  is  every  outline.  But  Mr.  Reinhart's  de- 
signs fit  into  the  text  so  closely  that  we  could  not  bear  to  part  with  a 
single  one  of  them.  "Their  Pilgrimage"  is  destined,  for  an  indefinite 
succession  of  Bummers,  to  be  a  ruling  favorite  with  all  visitors  of  the 
mountains,  the  beaches,  and  the  spas  which  are  so  marvellously  reflected 
in  its  pages. — JV.  Y.  Joxirnal  of  Commerce. 

The  author  touches  the  canvas  here  and  there  with  lines  of  color  that 
fix  and  identify  American  character.  Herein  is  the  real  charm  for  those 
who  like  it  best,  and  for  this  one  may  anticipate  that  it  will  be  one  of  the 
prominent  books  of  the  time.  Of  the  fancy  and  humor  of  Mr.  Warner, 
which  in  witchery  of  their  play  and  power  are  quite  independent  of  this 
or  that  subject,  there  is  nothing  to  add.  But  acknowledgment  is  due  Mr. 
Reinhart  for  nearly  eighty  finely  conceived  drawings,  and  to  the  publishers 
for  the  substantial  and  rich  letter-press  and  covers. — Boston  Globe. 

No  more  entertaining  travelling  companions  for  a  tour  of  pleasure  re- 
sorts could  be  wished  for  than  those  who  in  Mr.  Warner's  pages  chat  and 
laugh,  and  skim  the  cream  of  all  the  enjoyment  to  be  found  from  Mount 
Washington  to  the  Sulphur  Springs.  .  .  .  His  pen-pictures  of  the  charac- 
ters typical  of  each  resort,  of  the  manner  of  life  followed  at  each,  of  the 
humor  and  absurdities  peculiar  to  Saratoga,  or  Newport,  or  Bar  Harbor, 
as  the  case  may  be,  are  as  good-natured  as  they  are  clever.  The  satire, 
when  there  is  any,  is  of  the  mildest,  and  the  general  tone  is  that  of  one 
glad  to  look  on  the  brightest  side  of  the  cheerful,  pleasure-seeking  world 
with  which  he  mingles.  ...  In  Mr.  Reinhart  the  author  has  an  assistant 
who  has  done  with  his  pencil  almost  exactly  what  Mr.  Warner  has  accom- 
plished with  his  pen.  His  drawings  are  spirited,  catch  with  wonderful 
success  the  tone  and  costume  of  each  place  visited,  and  abound  in  good- 
natured  fun. —  Christian  Union,  N.  Y. 

Mr.  Reinhart's  spirited  and  realistic  illustrations  are  very  attractive,  and 
contribute  to  make  an  unusually  handsome  book.  We  have  already  com- 
mented upon  the  earlier  chapters  of  the  text;  and  the  happy  blending  of 
travel  and  fiction  which  we  looked  forward  to  with  confidence  did,  in  fact, 
distinguish  this  story  among  the  serials  of  the  year. — N.  Y.  Evening  Post. 


Published  by  HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  New  York. 

"  The  above  work  sent  by  mail,  postage  prepaid,  to  any  part  of  the  United  States 
or  Canada,  on  recci2>t  of  the  price. 


UPLAND  AND  MEADOW. 

A  Poaetquissings  Chronicle.     By  Charles  C.  Abbott, 
M.D,     pp.  X.,  398.     12mo,  Ornamental  Cloth,  $1  50. 

Dr.  Abbott  studies  most  delightfully  the  question  of  whether  birds  re- 
main with  us  during  the  winter ;  whether  hibernation  is  as  fixed  a  habit 
with  any  creature  as  is  supposed.  Then  follow  studies  of  the  habits  of 
marsh- wrens,  grakles,  red -birds,  toads,  humming-birds;  and  an  autumn 
diary  remarkably  full  of  interest  and  with  many  delightfully  poetical  hab- 
its of  expression,  together  with  accounts  of  conversations  with  the  country 
people  so  quaint  and  curious  as  to  give  a  great  personal  interest  to  these 
studies.  Any  one  with  the  slightest  interest  in  natural  history  will  be 
charmed  with  this  book ;  and  those  who  care  very  little  for  natural  his- 
tory in  itself  will  find  so  much  other  matter  that  whoever  and  of  whatever 
turn  of  mind  takes  up  this  book  will  not  willingly  lay  it  down. —  Christian 
A  dvocate,  N.  Y. 

We  commend  this  book  as  inspiring,  refreshing,  and  delightful  in  its 
record  and  humor  both. — Philadelphia  Ledger  and  Transcript. 

The  author  has  a  faculty  for  using  his  eyes  and  ears  to  excellent  advan- 
tage in  his  rambles  over  "  Upland  and  Meadow,"  and  a  very  entertaining 
■way  of  recording  what  he  sees  and  hears.  ...  It  is  worth  reading  indeed. 
— The  Exanmier,  N.  Y. 

Here  is  a  modern  Thorcau  with  an  imagination  the  like  of  which  Tho- 
reau  did  not  possess.  Things  happen  to  him  in  the  most  accommodating 
■way,  for  they  manage  to  give  each  story  of  bird  or  beast  a  point. — N.  Y. 
Times. 

Dehghtful  reading  for  students  and  lovers  of  out-door  nature.  .  .  .  Here 
the  author  discourses  with  the  greatest  charm  of  style  about  wood  and 
stream,  marsh-wrens,  the  spade-foot  toad,  summer,  winter,  trumpet-creepers 
and  ruby  throats,  September  sunshine,  a  colony  of  grakles,  the  queer  little 
dwellers  in  the  water,  and  countless  other  things  that  the  ordinary  eye 
passes  by  without  notice.  .  .  .  The  book  may  be  heartily  commended  to 
every  reader  of  taste,  and  to  every  admirer  of  graceful  and  nervous  En''- 
lish. — Saturday  Evening  Gazette,  Boston. 


Published  by  HAKPER  &  BROTHEKS,  New  York, 

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any  part  of  the  United  States  or  Canada,  on  receipt  of  the  price. 


R.  D.  BLACKMORE'S  NOVELS. 


Mr.  Blackmore  always  writes  like  a  schular  and  a  geutlemVin.—Athenceuni, 
London. 

His  descriptions  are  wonderfully  vivid  and  natural.  His  pages  are  bright- 
ened everywhere  with  great  humor;  the  quaint,  dry  turns  of  thought  remind 
you  occasionally  of  Fielding London  Times. 

His  tales,  all  of  them,  are  pre-eminently  meritorious.  They  are  remark- 
able for  their  careful  elaboration,  the  conscientious  finish  of  their  workman- 
ship, their  affluence  of  striking  dramatic  and  narrative  incident,  their  close 
observation  and  general  interpretation  of  nature,  their  profusion  of  pictur- 
esque description,  and  their  quiet  and  sustained  humor.  Besides,  they  are 
pervaded  by  a  bright  and  elastic  atmosphere  which  diffuses  a  cheery  feeling 
of  healthful  and  robust  vigor.  While  they  charm  us  by  their  sprightly  vivac- 
ity and  their  naturalness,  they  never  in  the  slightest  degree  transcend  the 
limits  of  delicacy  or  good  taste.  While  radiating  warmth  and  brightness,  they 
are  as  pure  as  the  new-fallen  suow.  .  .  .  Their  literary  execution  is  admirable, 
and  their  dramatic  power  is  as  exceptional  as  their  moral  purity. — Christian 
Intelligencer,  N.  Y. 

ALICE  LORRAINE.  A  Tale  of  the  South  Downs.  8vo,  Pa- 
per, 50  cents. 

CHRISTOWELL.    4to,  Paper,  20  cents. 

CLARA  VAUGIIAN.    4to,  Paper,  15  cents. 

CRADOCK  NOWELL.    8vo,  Paper,  60  cents. 

CRIPPS,  THE  CARRIER.  A  Woodland  Tale.  Illustrated. 
8vo,  Paper,  50  cents. 

EREMA ;  Or,  My  Father's  Sin.     8vo,  Paper,  50  cents. 

LORNA  DOONE.     8vo,  Paper,  25  cents  ;  12mo,  Cloth,  |1  00. 

MARY  ANERLEY.  A  Yorkshire  Tale.  16mo,  Cloth,  $1  00; 
4to,  Paper,  15  cents. 

SPRINGHAVEN.  A  Tale  of.  the  Great  War.  12mo,  Cloth, 
Illustrated  by  Alfred  Parsons  and  F.  Barnard,  $1  50; 
4to,  Paper,  20  cents. 

THE  MAID  OF  SKER.    8vo,  Paper,  50  cents. 

THE  REMARKABLE  HISTORY  OF  SIR  THOMAS  UP- 
MORE,  BART.,  M.P.  4to,  Paper,  20  cents  ;  16mo,  Paper, 
35  cents ;  Cloth,  50  cents. 


Published  by  HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  New  York. 

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United  States  or  Canada,  on  receipt  of  the  price. 


H.  RIDER  HAGGARD'S  NOVELS. 


SHE :  A  HISTORY  OF  ADVENTURE.  Profusely  Illustrat- 
ed.    4to,  Paper,  25  cents;  16mo,  Half  Bound.     {I/i  Press.) 

There  are  color,  splendor,  and  passion  everywhere;  action  in  abundance; 
constant  variety  and  absorbing  interest.  Mr.  Haggard  does  not  err  on  the 
side  of  niggardliness;  he  is  only  too  affluent  in  description  and  ornament.  .  .  . 
There  is  a  largeness,  a  freshness,  and  a  strength  about  him  which  are  full  of 
promise  and  encouragement,  the  more  since  he  has  placed  himself  so  unmis- 
takably on  the  romantic  side  of  fiction;  that  is,  on  the  side  of  truth  and  per- 
manent value. ...  He  is  already  one  of  the  foremost  modern  romance  writers. 
—N.  y.  World. 

It  seems  to  me  that  Mr.  Haggard  has  supplied  to  us  in  this  book  the  com- 
plement of  "  Dr.  Jeckyl."  He  has  shown  us  what  woman's  love  for  man  real- 
ly means. — The  Journalist. 

One  cannot  too  much  applaud  Mr.  Haggard  for  his  power  in  working  up  to 
a  weird  situation  and  holding  the  reader  at  the  ghost-story  pitch  without  ever 
absolutely  entering  the  realm  of  the  supernatural.  ...  It  is  a  story  to  be  read 
at  one  sitting,  not  in  weekly  parts.  But  its  sensationalism  is  fresh  and  stir- 
ring;  its  philosophy  is  conveyed  in  pages  that  glow  with  fine  images  and 
charm  the  reader  like  the  melodious  verse  of  Swinburne. — X.  Y.  Times. 

One  of  the  most  peculiar,  vivid,  and  absorbing  stories  we  have  read  for  a 
long  time. — Boston  Times. 

JESS.  A  Novel.  4to,  Paper,  15  cents ;  16mo,  Half  Bound,  75 
cents. 

Jlr.  Haggard  has  a  genius,  not  to  say  a  great  talent,  for  story-telling. .  .  . 
That  he  should  have  a  large  circle  of  readers  in  England  and  this  country, 
where  so  many  are  trying  to  tell  stories  with  no  stories  to  tell,  is  a  healthy 
sign,  in  that  it  shows  that  the  love  of  fiction,  pure  and  simple,  is  as  strong  as 
it  was  iu  the  days  of  Dickens  and  Thackeray  and  Scott,  the  older  days  of 
Smollett  and  Fielding,  and  the  old,  old  days  of  Le  Sage  and  Cervantes.— A'.  1'. 
Mail  and  Express. 

This  bare  sketch  of  the  story  gives  no  conception  of  the  beauty  of  the  love- 
passages  between  Jess  and  Niel,  or  of  the  many  fine  touches  interpolated  by 
the  author. — .S'(.  Louis  Reptihlican. 

Another  feast  of  South  African  life  and  marvel  for  those  who  revelled  in 
"  She." — Brooklyn  Eagle. 

The  story  has  special  and  novel  interest  for  the  spirited  reproduction  of  life, 
character,  scenes,  and  incidents  peculiar  to  the  Transvaal. — Boston  Advertiser. 

Mr.  Haggard  is  remarkable  for  hia  fertility  of  invention.  .  .  .  The  story,  like 
the  rest  of  his  stories,  is  full  of  romance,  movement,  action,  color,  passion. 
"Jess"  is  to  be  commended  because  it  is  what  it  pretends  to  be — a  storj'. — 
Philadelphia  Times. 

KING  SOLOMON'S  MINES.  A  Novel.  4to,  Paper,  20  cents; 
IGmo,  Half  Bound.     {In  Press.) 

Few  stories  of  the  season  are  more  exciting  than  this,  for  it  contains  an 
account  of  the  discovery  of  the  legendary  mines  of  King  Solomon  in  South 
Africa.  The  style  is  quaint  and  realistic  throughout,  and  the  adventures  of 
the  explorers  in  the  land  of  the  Kukuana  are  full  of  stirring  incidents.  The 
characters,  too,  are  vigorously  drawn. — Xeivs  and  Courier,  Charleston. 

This  novel  has  achieved  a  wonderful  popularity.  It  is  one  of  the  best  sell- 
ing books  of  the  season,  and  it  deserves  its  great  success.— 2Vo!/  Daili/  Press. 


PuBLisiiED  BY  HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  New  York. 

t^"  Any  of  the  above  ^corks  sent  by  mail,  postage  prepaid,  to  any  part  of  th» 
United  States  or  Canada,  on  receipt  of  the  price. 


BEN-HUR:  A  TALE  OF  THE  CHRIST. 


By  J.EW.  Wallace.     New  Edition,     pp.  552.     16mo, 
Cloth,  $1  50.  ... 

Anything  so  startling,  new,  and  distinctive  as  the  leading  feature  of  this 
romance  does  not  often  appear  in  worlds  of  fiction.  .  .  .  Some  of  Mr.  Wal- 
lace's writing  is  remarlcable  for  its  pathetic  eloquence.  The  scenes  de- 
scribed in  the  New  Testament  are  rewritten  with  the  power  and  sliill  of 
an  accomplished  master  of  style. — iV.  Y.  Times. 

Its  real  basis  is  a  description  of  the  life  of  the  Jews  and  Romans  at  the 
beginning  of  the  Christian  era,  and  this  is  both  forcible  and  brilliant.  .  .  . 
We  are  carried  through  a  surprising  variety  of  scenes ;  we  witness  a  sea- 
fight,  a  chariot-race,  the  internal  economy  of  a  Roman  galley,  domestic  in- 
teriors at  Antioch,  at  Jerusalem,  and  among  the  tribes  of  the  desert;  pal- 
aces, prisons,  the  haunts  of  dissipated  Roman  youth,  the  houses  of  pious 
families  of  Israel  There  is  plenty  of  exciting  incident;  everything  is 
animated,  vivid,  and  glowing. — JV.  Y.  Tribune. 

From  the  opening  of  the  volume  to  the  very  close  the  reader's  interest 
will  be  kept  at  the  highest  pitch,  and  the  novel  will  be  pronounced  by  all 
one  of  the  greatest  novels  of  the  day. — Boston  Post. 

It  is  full  of  poetic  beauty,  as  though  born  of  an  Eastern  sage,  and  there 
is  sufficient  of  Oriental  customs,  geography,  nomenclature,  etc.,  to  greatly 
strengthen  the  semblance. — Boston  Commonwealth. 

"Ben-Hiir"  is  interesting,  and  its  characterization  is  fine  and  strong. 
Meanwhile  .t  evmces  careful  study  of  the  period  in  which  the  scene  is  laid, 
and  will  help  those  who  read  it  with  reasonable  attention  to  realize  the 
nature  and  conditions  of  Hebrew  life  in  Jerusalem  and  Roman  life  at 
Antioch  at  the  time  of  our  Saviour's  advent. — Examiner,  N.  Y. 

It  is  really  Scripture  history  of  Christ's  time  clothed  gracefully  and 
delicately  in  the  flowing  and  loose  drapery  of  modern  fiction.  .  .  .  Few  late 
works  of  fiction  excel  it  in  genuine  ability  and  interest. — N.  Y.  Graphic. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  and  delightful  books.  It  is  as  real  and 
warm  as  life  itself,  and  as  attractive  as  the  grandest  and  most  heroic 
chapters  of  history. — Indianapolis  Journal. 

The  book  is  one  of  unquestionable  power,  and  will  be  read  with  un- 
wonted interest  by  many  readers  who  are  weary  of  the  conventional  novel 
and  romance. — Boston  Journal. 


Published  by  HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  New  York. 

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University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

305  De  Neve  Drive  -  Parking  Lot  17  •  Box  951388 

LOS  ANGELES,  CALIFORNIA  90095-1388 

Return  this  material  to  the  library  from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


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